


Absolutely Smitten

by binchmarner, somehowunbroken



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Basketball, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff and Smut, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-09 16:33:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19890919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/binchmarner/pseuds/binchmarner, https://archiveofourown.org/users/somehowunbroken/pseuds/somehowunbroken
Summary: Alexander gets asked if he'll do a PR thing at a Nuggets game. He figures it'll be a quick photo op and a fun game, but he absolutely isn't expecting it to kind of change his life.





	Absolutely Smitten

**Author's Note:**

> as always, if you found this story because you saw your name or someone you know listed here, please click away now.
> 
> thank you so much to logan for basketball-betaing this for us. we love u #wethenorth except #wethenuggets
> 
> jt's a basketball player on the denver nuggets, and alexander's on the colorado avalanche.
> 
> title of this story comes from dodie's song [absolutely smitten.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyMbqu1lj84%22)

"Josty, tell me why I'm doing this again," Alexander says, picking up his keys from the bowl. It was his one night this week to stay up late, and he'd honestly really rather just—well, stay in and read a book or play Fortnite than go to a Denver Nuggets game.

"Because you can't say no to Emily, that's my guess," Josty replies from where he's very safely sprawled on the sofa.

"You could at least come with me," Alexander grumbles. "I think Emily could get you in."

"Oh, for sure she could," Josty says, nodding. "No way, my dude. I'm staying here and relaxing. You have fun! Try not to miss the basket! I'm DVRing it."

Alexander rolls his eyes and flips him off as he walks out the door. "Fuck you!" he singsongs.

"You wish," Josty singsongs right back. "Go fall in love with a hot basketball player! Live your dreams!"

Alexander slams the door shut in response.

-0-

The game isn't that bad, in all honesty. It's got an NHL vibe to it, he thinks. He splurges on the nachos and a beer, because fuck dietary restrictions, though he barely gets the chance to set them by his seat before he's herded courtside by Emily.

"Come on, come on! They're about to announce your name!" Emily says, taking Alexander by the wrist and walking to the players' bench.

"Emil—" Alexander begins, but he's knocked face first into the chest of someone. Good thing he set down the nachos, in retrospect.

"Hey, whoa," the person says, grabbing him by the elbows. "You okay, man?"

"Yeah, sorry, I—" Alexander starts, and then he notices the jersey. And the arms. And the—the face, holy shit, what the fuck. "Whoops?"

The guy laughs, and shit, he's got a nice smile. "You're our Avs guy, right? I'm Compher. JT."

Alexander looks up a little higher and like, okay, fuck him for being so tall, and fuck his eyes for being so brown. "Uh—" he blinks. "Yes! Yeah, hi, Kerfy—foot. Kerfoot. Alexander."

Compher laughs again. "Cool," he says, stepping back. "Nice to meet you, man. Hopefully you're a good luck charm or something. Gotta score to impress the other area teams, right?"

Oh, and his laugh is great too. "Yeah, definitely," he says, nodding and hoping the camera—oh shit, Emily's _camera_ —isn't picking up on the fact that his face is literally in fucking flames. "I've been known to be, you know, quite lucky. It's a talent of mine."

_Stop. Talking. Alexander._

Compher smiles at him, and Alexander's maybe possibly going to just combust right here on the floor, never mind that he's not the one with fire-red hair. "Cool," he says again. "I’ll get you a three-pointer, then."

"Yeah, you do that," Alexander says weakly, and thankfully Compher walks away, back to where the rest of his team is gathered.

Emily snorts from behind her camera. Alexander hadn't known that he'd been watching Compher walk away until he'd heard her.

"Shut up," he says.

"I haven't said a thing!" she says, though her wide grin says otherwise.

"I've developed psychic powers," he mutters. "I can tell exactly what you're thinking."

"Weird," Emily says cheerily. "I promise to use no more than half of that, and I can cut out the embarrassing audio and just sub in crowd noise if it's bad."

"It's probably bad," Alexander says. "Just warning you now."

Emily raises a shaped eyebrow. "Really?" she asks, interested.

"Sub in crowd noise," he shoots back.

She shrugs, then nods. "C'mon, they want to do a thing with you putting on a jersey," she says. "Not your new friend's, I don't think. They said probably Jokic, or they'd make you one of your own. Let's see what they decided on."

It ends up being a Kerfoot jersey, which is a pleasant surprise. He likes the vibe of the new jersey design, and to see his name and number on something rainbow is kind of badass. He slides the jersey on over his head and fixes his hair. "Does it look good on me?" he asks with a smile.

Emily waits a beat, then snorts as she lowers her camera. "Am I really the one you want to be asking that?"

Alexander flushes. "Oh my god, Emily."

She smiles sweetly. "You look great. Very basketball-y."

Alexander cocks his head, trying to decide if that was a compliment. "Thank you. I think."

He's rushed to the middle of the court to meet the mascot. It's nice—the mascot's cool, overly animated and eager to shake his hand. He waves to the crowd and smiles, though he's thrown off-guard when the mascot presses a basketball into his hands. He wasn’t actually expecting to have to shoot some hoops today.

Alexander looks off to Emily for help, who sends him a thumbs-up.

"Right," he mutters. He's an athlete; he's probably got enough hand-eye coordination to shoot a basketball into a hoop when nobody's trying to stop him. He hopes. Josty will never let him live it down if he misses, and Compher—

He is not going to think about Compher. Never mind that.

He shoots, and thankfully it goes in; that's one less thing he has to worry about, at least. The crowd cheers, and he waves as he jogs back to the sidelines. He definitely doesn't think about the fact that Compher's smiling a little smirk of a thing when he makes eye contact with him. Alexander's got nachos to eat and a game to watch.

It's a good game; he likes basketball, even if it goes faster than he can even imagine going. It's also super weird that they score so much, but that's what you get for not having a goalie, he guesses. It's fun, back and forth up the court, and Compher is—

Distracting, Alexander thinks when he catches himself just watching Compher run up and down the court instead of tracking the play. He's focused, intense, always in the right place at the right time to make the plays happen. It's not hard at all to picture him in an Avs jersey, skating and passing and making the hard plays look easy. It's a lot to think about, really, and when he shoots a perfect basket with the ball touching nothing but net, Alexander flushes dark. Emily snorts next to him.

"Really?" he asks.

"You could try being at least a little subtle," she says.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he says archly.

"It's fine, I'm sure Compher knows," Emily says sweetly, and when Alexander glances back at the court, Compher's grinning directly at him.

"Shut the fuck up," he says, and she takes a photo of him in retaliation. He hates her, he truly does.

"Without me, you would never have had the chance to run into your new buddy," she says. "You actually love me."

"Lies," he replies. "Total lies."

He's grinning back at Compher anyway, until the whistle blows and Compher turns away. 

"A nice 45 seconds of solid eye contact. Nice job, Kerfoot!" she giggles, laughing harder when he knocks their shoulders together.

"It's dumb, he's dumb, and I _don't_ like him," he says.

"Sure, right," Emily says serenely. "I completely believe you. That sounds reasonable."

"Thank you!" Alexander says, and then waits a moment. "Wait, hold on. You don't actually—"

"Nope. No. Not at all," she laughs.

"Fuck off," he mutters, looking back to the court.

Emily pats his leg. "At least you picked up on it," she says. "Josty never gets there. Point for you!"

Compher's at the three-point line; he shoots almost effortlessly and the ball swishes through the net. Alexander can almost hear him yell _yeah!_ as his teammates clap him on the back.

"Well, now, that's just showing off," Alexander says, feeling Emily's eyes on him.

"Wonder why," she says, faking innocence probably as hard as she can. "It's such a mystery, I mean."

"It's his job," Alexander points out with whatever dignity he can muster. It's not much.

"Oh, definitely, that's for sure why," she nods, taking photos of the players. Alexander flushes, pointedly thinking about how Compher said he'd net a three-pointer for him, which. Yeah. Is a lot to not think about. "He sure is very good at it," Emily says.

"Incredibly," he says, and lets out a sigh he doesn't mean to.

Emily's nice enough to try to hide her laugh with a cough, but she's pretty bad at it, so Alexander doesn't feel bad for giving her a dirty look. "You've got a period to get your whole face under control," Emily says. "They want to do some kind of post-game thing with you, too."

"They _what_? With _who_?" he asks, knowing who it is with his luck.

Emily just smirks at him, and Alexander sighs. 

Great. Just great.

-0-

The Nuggets win, which means everyone's in a great mood, crowd and players alike. Alexander always enjoys it when one of his home teams wins, so he's pumped too even as he waits for Emily and the Nuggets' version of Emily to do whatever terrible thing they're going to do. A woman taller than Alexander walks up to him, talking to Emily all the while. Thick as thieves already, and Alexander has a very, _very_ bad feeling about this.

"Hey! I'm Jamie, the Nuggets' media person," Jamie says, holding her hand out for Alexander to shake.

"Hi," he says cautiously, shaking her hand. "Nice game. What're we doing here?"

"Not much, just a quick video," she says, and then she smiles the same smile Emily gives him right before asking him to do something mortifying.

"Uh," he begins, but he doesn't even have the chance to say anything because Compher's walking out of the locker room.

"You wanted to see me, Jamie?" Compher asks, towel around his neck.

Good lord.

"Yeah, over here," Jamie says, giving Compher the same evil smile. "The thing you guys did before the game was great, so we wanted to do a post-game thing."

"Uh," Compher says. His face is flushed, probably from the game, as he glances at Alexander. "Sure. What kind of thing?"

Emily looks at Alexander, and then at Compher, and grins. "Jersey swap."

Jamie's eyes light up. "Jersey swap," she agrees.

Compher's mouth opens, then closes. "I'm all gross from the game," he finally says, and if he thinks that's gonna stop Emily, then clearly Jamie is nowhere near her levels of evil.

"Deal with it," Jamie says, and welp, there goes that theory.

He turns to Alexander and mouths a _sorry_ , and takes off his jersey, and—

Alexander's breath doesn't exactly _hitch_ because he's not the male protagonist in a gay bodice ripper, but he definitely just… stops breathing for a second, because holy _fuck_ Compher's abs.

"Kerf? Your jersey?" Jamie says.

"Yeah," he says weakly, and he yanks it off so quickly that his shirt rides up his torso as he does it, and when he gets everything fixed and glances up, it's to find that Compher's flush has spread halfway down his chest. He's in no way prepared to deal with this, not at all.

"I-uh—sorry, I just, my shirt—" he looks back to see Jamie and Emily both filming.

"That gets cut out," Compher says, though somehow his cool demeanor is lessened by the bright flush on his freckled chest. "I _mean_ it, Tenner."

"Cross my heart," Jamie says, though it sounds like she doesn't mean it at all. 

"Emily," Alexander says. "That gets cut, c'mon."

Emily sighs. "You might not have to listen to yours, but I have to listen to mine, Jamie."

Jamie smiles, a little sweet. "Fine. Trade the jerseys, and then we'll let you go. And act like you’re having _fun_ , Comphy, I'm not pulling your teeth."

The flush that had been receding on Compher's chest comes back in full force. Alexander tries not to stare and fails.

The end of this is in sight, though, so he smiles a little hesitantly and holds the jersey out. "Trade?"

"Yeah," Compher laughs, taking the jersey and putting it on. It's just a little tight, and his arms just—wow. Alexander's just having a whole time.

"Now I feel underdressed," Alexander says when Compher tugs the jersey into place. it's a lot, the 13 on his chest, and Alexander really, really doesn't want to see when Compher turns around and his name's across his shoulders.

"We can seriously get you a new jersey. They probably want a photo," Compher says.

Alexander's sort of afraid of whatever harebrained scheme Not-Emily can come up with instead. "No, this is fine, promise," Alexander says, looking at the _37 Compher_ on the back before he puts it on. "How do I look?"

Compher is just sort of blinking at him, and he reaches out and tucks a strand of Alexander's hair behind his ear, then yanks his hand back like it's burning him. "Uh," he says. "Good?"

Because the world hates him, his breath does hitch that time. Alexander flushes dark, looking down at his feet. "Thanks," he says softly.

"I could sign yours for authenticity," Compher says with a small smile, and Alexander chuckles.

"I think your sweat is enough, but thank you," he says, grinning.

Compher wrinkles his nose. "Ew, no. Wash it. Please tell me you're gonna wash it."

"It does smell kinda bad," Alexander says thoughtfully. "I probably will, now that you mention it."

Compher throws his head back and laughs, high pitched, and on all accounts it should sound awkward, but it doesn't. Alexander beams, his chest warming at the thought of making him laugh.

Fuck.

"Well, you know, how do I look? I've gotta be cool with the Avs, now that I’ve got this jersey," Compher says, turning around, and yep. Yep that's a lot more to deal with than Alexander thought. It looks—good, seeing his name on Compher's back. 

"Gotta get you one of mine next time," Alexander says.

"Yeah, let's make that happen," Compher says, face lighting up as he turns. "Tenner, we can make that happen, right? He visits here, I visit there?"

"You both play in the same building, JT," Jamie says patiently. "But I'm sure we can make something happen, yes. And if not, y'know, you're a professional athlete, and I'm sure you can make it work on your own."

"I can get you tickets," Alexander adds, which—that's lame, holy shit, but Compher laughs again and it makes his whole face crinkle up, so it probably wasn't the lamest thing he's ever said.

"Yeah, definitely. It's a—thing. You know, like a thing, or I could like, buy my own tickets. Support you and the Avs." Compher says, glaring at Jamie when she snorts.

"Solidarity, man," Alexander says, and okay. That's the lamest thing he's ever said.

"Okay, well," Emily says, and sometimes she's the worst but right now she's actually the best. "Time for us to go, I think. Somebody here has no early skate in the morning, so he probably wants to actually get a good night's sleep."

Alexander shrugs. "I mean, I wouldn't be mad about that."

Compher starts a little. "You, uh," he says. "Give me your phone, I'll give you my number, we can coordinate on a good game for me to go to?"

Alexander stares a little, because that's the kind of thing that PR usually handles, but Compher's face is as red as his hair, and—is he… flirting? Maybe? "Sure, yeah," he finally says, and hands over his phone.

Compher plugs his number in and hands it back, and Alexander's fingers brush his when he reaches for it. "Here you go."

"Thanks. I'll, uh… text you?" Alexander says, shaking his phone, and Compher's face lights up.

"Yeah, yeah, okay! See you later, I guess?" he says, and Alexander nods.

"See you," Alexander waves, and Compher walks back into the locker room. 

Alexander's definitely just like, staring at Compher's iPhone contact page.

_Jay._

Huh.

Emily sighs, which pulls him out of his head, and he glances up. She's grinning at him. "New friend, huh," she says. "I'll make sure Jamie doesn't put anything too embarrassing up, okay?"

Seriously, sometimes she's the actual best. "Thanks."

"But I'm getting you for the Valentine's card thing this year," she adds, and, yeah, never mind. She's the worst.

"Thanks," he says as they're walking out.

"For what?" she asks, and it sounds genuine.

"For tonight. It was really fun," Alexander says when he gets to his car, pulling out his keys. "I guess I just needed to get away from hockey for a night."

She grins and bumps his shoulder. "Hey, look at that. You're learning there's life outside of hockey."

"I knew that," he protests. It's not like Colin ever lets them forget it.

"Well, I'm glad you had a nice time," Emily says. "Now get some sleep, okay? Don't let Josty burn down the house making breakfast."

"He's banned from everything but the microwave," Alexander says, getting into his car. "I threatened to stop cooking for him if he kept trying to cook for me."

Emily laughs. "Good luck with that."

Alexander laughs as he gets in the car, waving goodbye.

If he spends the entire car ride home trying to figure out exactly how to say hi to Compher, well, there’s no one to judge him for iti.

-0-

When he pulls into the driveway, he gets an idea. He pulls up his camera, switches to video, and hits record as he opens the door. "Dude," he calls out. "Did you watch the game?"

Josty's head pops up from the sofa like a curly whack-a-mole. "Dude," he greets. "That three -pointer from so deep in the corner that he was basically on the team bench?? Sick!"

"Yeah," Alexander agrees. "Who was that? Jokic?"

"Uh, Compher," Josty says, rolling his eyes. "Dude. Come on. His hair's like fire and he's super hot. Be better."

Alexander turns the camera to face him. "He thinks you're hot," he singsongs, and then he stops recording.

Josty raises an eyebrow. "I think who's hot? Compher? Why are you talking into a phone, Kerf? You suddenly decide to do a YouTube channel like Fabbs talked about?"

"I made a friend," Alexander says, quickly texting the video to Compher. "Apparently you think he's hot."

"Uh, I said _super_ hot, get it right," Josty says, because he wouldn't know shame if he tripped into a vat of it. "Seriously? I didn't know you knew how to make friends! Good job!"

Alexander rolls his eyes and flips him off.

**From Jay:** glad to know im well liked in the kerfoot household.

**To Jay:** that's kerfoot-jost to you  
also sometimes fabbro, but only when his partner’s in town  
so like 2 or 3 times a year there's an extra name, but mostly just the 2 of us here, haha

Alexander winces at how awkward he is over text, but honestly, he was this awkward in person, too. It's not like Compher isn't aware of it by now.

**From Jay:** is there ever a fourth name in the household?

And, uh?

"What? What is it?" Josty asks, hooking his chin over Alexander's shoulder to try and read his texts. Alexander starts and locks his phone. Josty snorts. "Bitch, I know your passcode."

"Go away," Alexander tries. "Let me talk in peace."

Josty shakes his head, digging his chin into Alexander's shoulder. "That has never once worked. Why would you try it now?"

“A guy can hope," Alexander says, sighing and opening it back up. It's not like he won't eventually tell Josty anyway.

**To Jay:** nah biggy got traded :( just me and josty, and he's either talking to his partner or reading over my shoulder. nobody else around though

"You idiot, he's _flirting with you_. Get it! Go get your dick wet, Kerf!" Josty says, shaking Alexander gently. Alexander feels his face heat up to about a million degrees.

"Fuck off, that's not what he meant," he says, though like—what if Compher did?

"I'm sorry, which one of us know what flirting is, and which one of us had to have Colesy tell him when the waitress was interested?" Josty demands. " _Colesy_ , Kerfy. That's just embarrassing shit right there."

"He's friendly," Alexander protests. "It doesn't mean he's flirting."

**From Jay:** haha cool  
maybe I could come over some time? even up the odds in your favor

Josty makes a high pitched noise. "My dude. Bro. Alexander middle name Kerfoot. _Get it_."

"If you don't stop screaming I'm locking you in the bathroom," Alexander says. Josty groans, reaching for Alexander's phone. "No—no. _Tyson don't—_ "

"Just hold on, let me—" he says, running to the other side of the room with Alexander's phone in his hands.

"I will tell Dante about the thing with the fish," Alexander yells, desperate.

"You absolutely will not, that's against bro code," Josty says, typing something on Alexander's phone. "I'm doing you a favor!"

" _And stealing my phone isn't?_ " Alexander tackles Josty to the couch. Josty curls up, holding the phone to his chest.

**To Jay:** yeah that sudfsoaijisao;

"I'm trying to get you _laid_!" Josty says, his face smooshed into a cushion.

"I will roommate divorce you and force you to live on your own if you do that," Alexander says. "Give it back."

"I'll get the house, don't lie," Josty says, though he hands back the phone. Alexander yelps.

**From Jay:** you'll what? Haha

"You won't because you're going to be dead, Jost," Alexander says.

"I can help you recover from this," Josty says sweetly. "C'mon, man. You haven't gotten laid in forever. Let me help you hook up with the hot basketball player."

"I don't trust you," Alexander says.

Josty puts a hand over his heart. "That hurts."

"You've been with Dante for literally your whole-ass life, Josty, you have no idea how to really flirt,” Alexander says, crossing his arms.

It makes Josty laugh. "That's just a lie, man."

Alexander sighs, looks down at the terrible reality of his phone conversation with Compher, and then back up at Josty. "Fix it. Now. Please."

Josty grins, clearly delighted, and grabs the phone back. He taps at the screen, waits for a moment, then starts tapping again. Alexander desperately wants to know what he's saying, but he actually does trust Josty on this. He's just kind of nervous, which is absolutely stupid, but oh well.

"You have a date," Josty announces a few minutes later. "Like, a low key, chill date, but it's for sure a date."

Alexander swallows. "You're sure it's a date?"

Josty rolls his eyes and tosses his phone back, and Alexander reads through the conversation. it's Josty joking around, then offering to take Compher out for steak to apologize for the typo text, and then—

**To Jay:** just to clarify, I totally mean this as a date. not a bros thing.

**From Jay:** wow.  
i mean, that's awesome. thanks for being clear and not making me guess, haha.  
it's a date. :)

Alexander's face is bright red. "You've got no idea how to fucking flirt, dude," he says, a little breathless, but mostly in shock because—date. Him. Date. With Compher.

"I got you a date! You can say thank you now," Josty says cheerily.

"We'll see if he actually shows up after that terrible flirting," Alexander retorts. "Then maybe I'll consider it."

Josty's mouth opens, then closes. "He's gonna show up, Kerf," he says, a little soft. "I'll beat him up if he doesn't." 

Alexander smiles a little weakly. "Don't hurt yourself."

"You're worth it," Josty says, dragging him into a hug. "I'll get Z to beat him up. That'll teach him."

"He's so pretty though," Alexander says, burying his face into Josty's neck. "Don't rough him up too much."

"Only if he breaks your heart," Josty says. One of the best reasons to room with Josty, Alexander has learned, is that he is a world-class snuggler, and he has yet to say no to a cuddle. "I'll punch him right in his pretty face if he hurts you."

Alexander laughs a little. "Okay, weird timing since you just apparently got me a date, but can we cuddle tonight?"

"Uh, yes," Josty says. "Literally always. Cuddle me all night, bitch."

Alexander wraps his arms around Josty's waist. "You got it, dude."

-0-

They fall asleep on the couch, which isn't Alexander's idea of a great night's sleep, but he does wake up to a text from Compher.

**From Jay:** hey :)

He does not panic and shake Josty awake to help him reply, which is probably personal growth or something like it.

**To Jay:** hey :) sleep well?

**From Jay:** yeah. you?

Probably not a good idea to tell him he'd spent the night wrapped around the guy he'd made a point of saying he wasn't dating, Alexander decides. It's probably post-date material, explaining Josty to anyone.

**To Jay:** yeah.  
now to just find something for breakfast.

**From Jay:** im planning on going to a diner  
wanna come?  
this is me asking you on a date. 

Alexander falls off the couch.

"Whassa?" Josty asks sleepily, picking his head up off the arm of the chair.

**To Jay:** we've already got one planned for friday?  
not saying no, of course i'll come with you

**From Jay:** people normally go on more than one date  
Unless breakfast goes bad haha

"I think I have a brunch date," Alexander says faintly from the floor. "Like. Now?"

Josty is suddenly fully awake. "Shower, oh my god," he demands. "Your hair is—bro. Shower, I’ll pick out brunch clothes, oh my god, this is not a drill."

Alexander sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "Please don't tell the team."

Josty blinks at him. "Whatever happened at the game last night is absolutely already all over socials," he says. "They know, my dude. Go shower."

Alexander's phone buzzes. He looks at it, expecting it to be Compher, but—

**Curly fry:** WHY DIDNT YOU TELL ME YOU WERE DATING JT COMPHER??????????  
**Horsegirl:** this has to be about at least 3 fines

Alas. it's the groupchat.

**captain hotpants:** idk if it's a fine, since Emily posted it?  
**g:** Emily posted that photo of EJ and me with the newspapers and you still fined us.  
**horsegirl:** YEAH you did. pay up, kerf!!!!!

Alexander sighs. “What did I do to deserve this?"

Josty points to the bathroom. "I'll tell the chat that you have a date in thirty minutes and _they_ can help you pick out clothes if you don't go. Shower. Now."

"But—"

**Salad boy:** I was fined my first day because I said that z had nice hair  
**Rantspants:** you were flirting?!!?!  
**Salad boy:** yes, and?  
It was my //first day//  
Why dont we give him some leeway, is what im saying

Alexander knew he liked Cale for a reason.

**Little spoon:** he has a date in like, thirty minutes.  
**Salad boy:** oh, then fuck that.  
Pay up, kerfoot.

"I hate everyone, but especially you," Alexander announces, finally getting up off the floor. "Tell Cale he's dead to me."

"Shower or I'm purposely picking out the worst clothes you own," Josty says. "Go. Now."

"I'm _going_ ," he says, stalking off into the bathroom.

He showers quickly, mostly because he's afraid of what the groupchat is going to get up to in his absence. It's not like he has the power to make them stop or anything, but if he keeps an eye on it, he feels less like he'll be in for a shock when he catches up.

Josty has picked out the jeans that hug his ass and a henley, and Alexander squints at them suspiciously. "Is that dressy? It's brunch."

"Show off your _ass_ ets," Josty drawls.

Alexander rolls his eyes, though he picks up the jeans. "What do you mean, _assets_?"

"You know! The ass, the arms. And I asked the chat. Nate said a henley shows off hockey arms, and Gabe said something about skinny jeans and a hockey ass and everyone had to fine Tyson because he immediately said something gross and TMI, which we all knew but we didn't need to know in that much detail," Josty shrugs. 

"Gross," Alexander agrees. Just because Gabe is Captain Hotpants in his phone doesn't mean he wants to hear about what happens when the pants come off. "Nate dresses like a lumberjack most of the time. I don't know if I trust him."

"A hot lumberjack, though," Josty points out, which, fair. "Also, Colin said you should do nice jeans and a henley, and you know he'd never steer you wrong. You're his boy."

Well, you know. It's hard to deal with that logic.

**From The Only Sane One:** Hey, kid.  
Have fun today okay?  
He seems like a nice guy, and it looks like he likes you.  
The chat can be a lot, but they just really care about you.  
(if he sucks, we'll all send Z and Nemo to beat him up.)

Alexander smiles a little, relaxing internally. Colin's the best pseudo dad, and he's gonna really have to think about how to outdo last year when Father's Day rolls around again.

**To The Only Sane One:** thanks.  
I'm nervous. this is dumb. why am I nervous?  
I only met him for like ten minutes total.  
I think I really like him, colin.

**From The Only Sane One:** Well  
That just means he's important, yeah?  
Look, bud. I watched the video. He couldn't take his eyes off of you.  
It's going to be fine, okay? Just take a couple of deep breaths.

**To The Only Sane One:** I can do that.  
I might need to come over and meditate with you later, if you don't have anything else going on.

**From The Only Sane One:** I'll make time. Whatever you need, Just let me know.

Alexander kind of hopes basketball is like hockey, with the whole team as family thing, but he kind of suspects it's not quite to the hockey level of things. Few things in life are.

**From Jay:** hey, there's a really nice hole in the wall diner near the arena. meet me there at 1030?

" _Fuck_ , I’ve got a half hour. What do I—what am I going to? Do I wear cologne? Josty, I don’t wear cologne to this, right?" Alexander says. Josty raises an eyebrow.

"I—do you even _own_ cologne?" he asks.

"Yes," Alexander says, gesturing to his dresser. It was a gift from his mom, sure, but he owns it.

"Don't wear cologne," Josty decides. "That's a dinner thing. Wear cologne to the steak dinner date, but not the breakfast date. Unless it's shitty cologne, in which case, don't wear it at all."

"Right. Right, okay," Alexander says, walking back into the bathroom.

"Did you answer him?" Josty says. Alexander drops his clothes and runs back in his room in boxers, picking up his phone.

**To Jay:** i'll be there :)

**From Jay:** :)

"He's cute," Alexander whines. "Why is he cute?"

"Why is that a bad thing?" Josty wonders.

"Because I can’t think around cute people," Alexander says, starfishing on his bed. Josty sits next to him.

Josty nods. "Right. I remember when you first met EJ."

Alexander groans, smooshing his face into the pillow. "Don't remind me. Thank god he's an asshole."

"And then when Sammy joined the team," Josty continues.

"Please stop."

"It's a good thing Colin's too much of a dad, or that'd be super awkward now," Josty says, grinning wide. "He's for sure the hot dad, though. Definite DILF."

"I'm going to kill you in your sleep," Alexander says into his pillow. "If you'd stop recounting my team crushes, I’d like to get dressed, please."

Josty grins. "But we haven't even gotten to Brassard yet!"

"Why aren't you ever embarrassed by anything?" Alexander asks. "There's no way to get back at you except the fish thing, which you know I'm not actually ever going to tell Dante about."

Josty grins. "Gotta be me, man."

Alexander gets up and flips him off, going to get dressed. They were right, he guesses. He does look pretty good.

"Do I look good?" Alexander asks, walking into the room. Josty looks up from his phone.

"Yes. One, fix your hair, it looks like sex hair, and two, there have been like three more fines tacked on. Tyson's really upset you didn't go to him because _something something team mom something_."

"He's only your mom," Alexander says, pushing his hands through his hair. "We all agreed on this."

"He doesn't want to hear it," Josty says, shrugging. "He's very upset. He also says wear your loafers, but if you actually own loafers I'm roommate divorcing you, so please don't tell me if you can actually follow those directions."

Alexander snorts. "Who the fuck even owns loafers?"

They stare at each other for a second before—

"Z," they say at the same time.

"Wear your Converse. Go casual but like, still _in the know_ , y'know?" Josty says.

Alexander does not, in fact, know. "Right, yeah." He thinks for a second. "Which are the Converse?"

"Oh my god."

"Just give me shoes," he says, because that's easiest. He is definitely gonna get some sort of sneaker lecture from Nate again, but he'll deal with that when he comes to it.

“You're the most hopeless person I've ever met, and I'm dating a Fabbro," Josty says, disappearing into the closet. He comes back with the black Converse and shoves them in Alexander's hands. "Wear these, okay? You'll look great."

"Thanks," Alexander says. "What if—what if I just didn't go? That way there's no chance of it turning bad and I can't embarrass myself to all hell?"

"What if you do go and it's the best date ever?" Josty counters. "What if you miss out on that because you're afraid?"

Alexander groans. "Stop being all right and wise and shit."

"Don't tell anyone," Josty says, grinning at him. "If everybody knew I sometimes actually have my shit together, I'd never get any peace."

"Cross my heart," he says, making an x over his heart. "Fuck it. Fine. I'll go."

"Good! Have fun! Tell me when you're coming back to fuck so I can go be anywhere but here!" Josty laughs.

"I'm at least waiting until after the nice dinner for that," Alexander protests. "I'm not against putting out on the first date, but after brunch? Really?"

"Post-brunch sex is great," Josty says. "Can confirm."

"Oh my god." He rolls his eyes, mostly because he doesn't want to let himself think about post-brunch sex with Compher yet. "Let me get through today first."

"I'm just saying!"

"Well, just say it later!" Alexander says. "I've gotta go, I'll see you."

-0-

When he gets to the brunch place, he sees that Compher is also in jeans and a henley, and he laughs as he slides into the booth. "Hey."

"Hey! Same hat," Compher laughs, pointing at Alexander.

Alexander's eyebrows furrow. "I’m not wearing a hat?"

"No, no, it means—sorry, there's a rookie on my team that's been saying the weirdest shit. It basically means, like, _same thing_. I'm trying to say we're dressed the same. I probably could've just said you look nice," Compher says, his cheeks flushing.

Alexander knows how far down that flush spreads and it's not something he needs to think about before the menus arrive. "One of our rookies would send the Spider-Man meme in the groupchat if he saw us," he volunteers. "Rookies are so fucking weird."

"They are," Compher agrees fervently. "I'd say I was never that weird, but I remember college."

Alexander laughs. "Yeah? Where'd you go?" It's a decent conversation topic as they read through the menus and order food.

"UMich. I think I went with Zach Hyman?" Compher asks. "The guy on the Leafs, right?"

"No way, really?" Alexander asks.

"Yeah," he says, grinning. "Couple other guys, too. I know one of them's on the Red Wings, and the other one has a long last name that starts with like a W or something."

Alexander laughs. "Larkin and Werenski," he guesses. 

"Probably, yeah. We were all on the same floor, something about sports being one big family. I joined a frat my second semester, though. Where'd you go?" Compher asks, sipping his coffee.

"Harvard," Alexander says. "Graduated with an economics degree, which is almost entirely useless, but the hockey was fun."

"Oh, a Harvard man," Compher smirks. "I kind of want to quote _Legally Blonde_ right now."

"See, you saying that right now? You've already won my roommate over," Alexander laughs.

"I appreciate a man who can quote _Legally Blonde_ ," Compher says. “You're close, you and your roommate?"

"Kind of disturbingly so, if you ask the rest of the team," Alexander admits. "Josty says they're just jealous, but we are… close."

"Yeah, I get that. I remember being really really close with my roommate in the frat house," Compher says, smiling a little. "Is it nice? Being up in the NHL?"

"The best," Alexander replies with a smile. "I love hockey, and I love getting to play a game for a living. It seems so ridiculous, but I can't imagine being anywhere else. How about you?"

"It's insane," Compher says. "Some days I love it and it's the best thing in the world, and other days it..." He trails off for a moment. "But honestly, just knowing I worked my entire life to get where I am right now? That's pretty cool."

"Yeah, I get that," Alexander says with feeling. "The bad days are bad, but they're still what I want to be doing, that kind of thing."

"Exactly, and like… I don't know. There's just some sort of thrill when you score, right?" Compher flushes. 

Alexander smiles, feeling a little daring. "I definitely felt something when you scored, yeah."

Compher raises an eyebrow. "Oh, you did, did you?" And he's smirking a smirk that makes him look stupidly attractive and honestly, Alexander doesn't know how to deal at this point. "I did say I'd score for you, so, the fact that you felt something is—good."

And there's the flush on his cheeks. God, Alexander's so gone already.

"We, uh," he says, and he's definitely about to take Josty up on that offer of going somewhere else so he can bring Compher home, but that's when the waitress sets their food down in front of them. He blinks at it, and isn't ashamed to admit to himself that he kind of forgot they were actually here to get food. He looks up at Compher. "Right. Brunch."

Compher chuckles, staring at the food for a second, then looks up and smiles at the waitress. "Thank you, Kiera. Could we get these in to go boxes? And a check, please."

She laughs. "Sure thing, JT," she says. She turns to Alexander. "And you, honey? Same?"

Alexander stares dumbly. "Yeah, yes. A box would be great, thank you. And a check for me—"

"Let me get it," JT says, resting his hand in the middle of the table, a small smile on his face.

Kiera laughs again, patting Alexander's shoulder as she walks away.

"Yeah?" Alexander asks, smiling back. "I told my roommate I wouldn't need him to clear out today. Gonna make a liar out of me, Compher?"

"That's the plan," he says, his smile turning a little wicked. 

Alexander doesn't shiver through sheer force of will. "I don't have practice today, so…"

Compher's face clouds. "Oh, fuck. practice."

Alexander's brow furrows. "When is it? You could, well, come over after? Push up the steak dinner to tonight?"

Compher glances at his phone. "I have, like, an hour before I have to be there," he says. "How would you feel about following me to my place and making out for a little while? And we can go out tonight, and then maybe see where things go after that?"

Alexander's face flushes, and he nods. "Yeah, yes. I’d like that a lot."

"Awesome," Compher says, smile lighting his face as Kiera comes back with two boxes and a single check. Compher throws a few bills on top of it and starts shoveling his food into the box. "Save your food, though. They serve good stuff here."

"Yeah?" Alexander says, spooning his food in. "I wonder if the waffles are any good."

"Apparently they're amazing. I've only had the gluten free version and that's still _so_ good," Compher says.

"Next time," Alexander says, shutting his box. "Something to look forward to. And speaking of, how close are we to your place?"

"Five minutes. I took an Uber," Compher says. "I can call one unless—"

"Don't worry, I drove," Alexander takes his keys out of his pocket. "Let's go?"

"Let's go," Compher confirms. "Kiera, keep the change."

"Thanks, kiddo," Kiera calls out from the kitchen. "Have fun, boys!"

Alexander flushes dark as they walk out of the diner, but Compher's laughing, so he's going to guess they're at least not in danger of getting outed.

"Kiera's a family friend," Compher says as they get into Alexander's car. "She's known me longer than I've been playing basketball. She was the first person outside of my family that I came out to, and she never said anything to anyone. We're fine," Compher smiles gently, sensing some of Alexander's tension.

Alexander nods. "Thanks," he says. "It's not that I'm ashamed, but I don't really want my face out there right now. That's a 'maybe later' kind of thing, I think."

"I get it," Compher says, smiling. "Just because things are better doesn't mean things are awesome."

Alexander laughs. "I think if I beat some of my teammates out of the closet, they'd never forgive me, actually," he says. "This team is… not straight. Like, we have a token straight guy, and we're not even sure if he's actually straight or just quiet bi."

"Oh, definitely. We've got one of those too, we're just afraid to ask," Compher snorts, plugging his address into the GPS.

"There's something in the water here," Alexander says with a grin. "Or, like, we just attract all the queer kids."

"Why not both?" Compher asks, laughing.

"That's so valid," Alexander laughs.

They keep up a steady conversation on the way to Compher's, and Alexander decidedly Does Not Think About how Compher's hand is between them by the gear shift and how it would feel wrapped around his—

"The GPS constantly gets this wrong, turn in here, okay?" Compher says.

"Yeah," Alexander says, voice a little strangled. "Do you have assigned parking, or—"

"Nope, just park," Compher says. "Anywhere. Close to the door is great."

"Yeah? How close?" Alexander says.

"Oh, you know. There's a parking space right there. Primo, prime spot," Compher says, his face flushing.

"Sweet," Alexander says, parking where Compher's pointing. "Upstairs?"

"Yeah," Compher says. He practically jumps out of the car. "C'mon, this way."

Alexander smiles in spite of himself, getting out of the car and jogging after him, boxes from the diner in hand. 

There's an elevator, but Compher heads for the stairs instead, and Alexander has no idea if he just doesn't want to wait or if it's some sort of awful deathtrap. Even odds, he decides, and he doesn't actually care, not when Compher pushes open the door for the third floor.

"Right in here," Compher says, unlocking the door to his apartment. Alexander's mouth drops.

"It's _beautiful_ ," Alexander says. So what if he watches HGTV in his free time with Josty? Sue him. 

"Thanks," Compher says. "I'll give you a tour, but maybe later? I need to leave in half an hour, tops, and I would much rather spend that time… not showing you around my house."

"Yeah, absolutely," Alexander says. "Kitchen? I'll put the leftovers away, and then—"

Compher grabs the leftovers, disappears for about fifteen seconds, and then reappears, grinning. "Anything else, or can I kiss you like I've been thinking about doing since last night?"

Alexander grins and closes the distance between the two of them, kissing him deep. He slides a hand through Compher's hair, resting the other on his shoulder. He pulls away, biting his lip. "Does that answer your question?"

"Hmm, I'm not sure," Compher replies, eyes dark. "Maybe try again."

"That was lame," Alexander informs him, but he leans back in. He stops with their lips almost touching. "So, like, not to be weird about things, but I have definitely been doing the sports thing and calling you by your last name in my head."

Compher snorts. "JT," he offers. "Or Jay. People—mostly just my close friends and family, they call me Jay, but you should. Can. If you want."

Alexander thinks for a second, looking up at him through his lashes. "Okay, Jay. I'm Alexander, by the way. Just Alexander." And that gets JT to flush dark, before he pulls Alexander in by the hips and kisses him. 

It's not all that weird to be the shorter one; Alexander knows he's not exactly the tallest guy out there, and he mostly hooks up with other athletes, so he's used to it. The beard is new and exciting, though, and he decides he's a pretty big fan of it.

"I really want to take you to bed," JT murmurs. "But I can’t skip practice. I'll get my ass handed to me, fuck."

Alexander leans back in and kisses him again. "Don't skip," he says. "Later, okay?"

"Later. I want to take you out properly. Wine and dine you before I get you to bed," JT says, resting his forehead against Alexander's. Somehow, JT's hands had travelled under his shirt, and his thumbs are rubbing circles into Alexander's hips.

"Yeah?" Alexander asks.

"Something tells me I should treat you extra right," JT says, smiling slightly. "Not that I wouldn't anyway, but… I don't know. Is it weird that I want to make it a little special?"

Alexander feels something in his stomach swoop. "No, I—I'd like that."

JT smiles. "I get out of practice at four. Why don't we get dressed up and make a night of it?" 

"That sounds great," Alexander says with a grin.

"We can definitely make a liar out of you to your roommate, if you want, but I'd really like to bring you here after," JT says, and _woah._

"Yeah," he manages, his voice strained. "Let's do that. I have practice tomorrow, but not until the afternoon, so I could… stay? If that's okay?"

JT's smile is a little soft. "Yeah. Let's plan on that."

"Okay. I should go. I'll text you my address? So you know where to pick me up?" Alexander asks, and JT leans in to press a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth and, yeah. He _really_ likes the beard.

"Sounds like a plan," he says.

Alexander kisses him again. "I should go," he says. "Right?"

"You should," JT says. "Even if I don't want you to."

He kisses JT one last time. "Even if I don't want to either."

"You don't have to go later," JT promises. "But I'm gonna be late for practice, probably, and let me tell you how much of an asshole Gary Harris can be when he thinks someone just got laid."

Alexander pales for a second. "Oh god, you don't even know how many fines I got because of the social media stuff Emily posted. Erik Johnson is going to be like a kid in a candy store."

"Wait, I thought that was, like, a sports urban legend," JT says, laughing. "You really get fined?"

"We super do," Alexander says, rolling his eyes. "It's usually not worth it, but I'm gonna say this time it was."

JT's smile goes soft. "I'm already pretty charmed. You don't have to keep trying so hard."

Alexander grins. "Oh, are you? Guess I just like seeing you smile."

That makes JT laugh. "Man, if you don't leave now, I think I'm skipping practice."

"Pick me up at seven," Alexander says, kissing JT one last time before he pulls away.

"Sweet, yeah, definitely," JT says. "I'll be there."

Alexander smiles. "Me too."

JT laughs, and Alexander steps back so he doesn't just… stay. "Bye."

"Bye, I just—bye," Alexander says, and walks out of the apartment. He takes a deep breath, and smiles.

God, he's going to get _so_ fined.

-0-

Josty takes one look at him and absolutely loses it laughing. "Dude," he says. "You have so much beard burn. I'm guess post-brunch sex was a go?"

Alexander flushes. "No," he splutters. "We went to his place and I kissed him. That's it."

"Your face says otherwise, dude! Also your neck, that's a nice mark," Josty says, pointing on his neck. Alexander's face flushes, though he doesn't cover it up.

"You don't tell the guys, or I _will_ tell Dante about the fish thing,” Alexander threatens.

"They know you had a date this morning, they all saw the video last night, and they're not actually as dumb as we wish they were," Josty says. "Sorry, bro."

"We have a date tonight," Alexander mumbles. "And, like. I might not be home after?"

"My _man_!" Josty says, and he literally falls back on the couch, laughing. "So much for not putting out on the first date."

"Okay, first of all, I said I had no problems with that," Alexander says. "And second of all, learn to count. It's the second date."

"Dude, it's been like an hour and a half. You went to a diner, plus factor in about twenty minutes driving time? How long did you stay at the diner, like half an hour?" Josty says, raising an eyebrow.

"I—you. O-fucking-kay, Sherlock Holmes," Alexander says. His face must be so red.

"I'm just saying," Josty says. " _Get it_."

Alexander spreads his hands. "I'm trying!"

"Good!" Josty says. "Why'd you leave?"

"He had practice," Alexander mutters.

"So he brought you home to _make out_? Dude, he's _gone_ on you," Josty smiles.

"We didn't even eat," Alexander says. "And I just remembered that I left my leftovers in his fridge."

Josty snickers. "So your brunch date was just makeouts," he says. "What the hell is steak gonna be?"

Alexander raises his eyebrows at Josty. "None of your business."

"Aw, c'mon, I tell you everything," Josty says.

"As much as I tell you not to, you sure do," Alexander says. "Consider this payback."

Josty pouts. " _C'mon_ , Alexander. I'll tell the chat and they'll fine you for obstruction of justice."

Alexander rolls his eyes. "I regret teaching you that term."

"I'll do it, too, don't fucking test me," Josty says, holding up his phone.

"I will tell EJ about the fish thing," Alexander threatens. "You know I won't tell Dante, but I will absolutely tell EJ. If I go down, I'm taking you down with me." Alexander knows he's won. Nothing beats telling EJ.

"I'll go through your phone and find Compher's number and tell him about the embarrassment thing," Josty says."Don't think I won't."

Nothing beats telling EJ, except for maybe that.

"Maybe I’ll tell him myself, and you won't have to," Alexander says. He's bluffing, probably, but Josty might not call him on it.

Josty raises an eyebrow. "Sure you will, Kerf."

"It'll come up eventually," he says, shrugging. Maybe he should change his phone passcode in self-defense.

"Just tell me," Josty begs. "Or at least keep quiet when you're masturbating. I want to know, but not that much."

Alexander grins at him. "Be careful what you wish for, dude. Maybe it's all or nothing. Which would you rather?"

"All, of course. I can buy noise cancelling headphones, I can't buy your information," Josty says. "Come on, let's get drunk at 12:45 and spill secrets."

"I'm not getting day drunk," Alexander says immediately. "I have a date tonight. A nice, classy date."

Josty sighs, laying back down on the couch. "Fine. keep your secrets, I'll just have Tyson and EJ get them out of you."

"Sure you will!" Alexander says, walking to his room.

Colin's the one who could actually get him to spill, but Colin would never betray him like that. Which is a good thing, because Alexander's definitely gonna spill to him.

**To The Only Sane One:** I had a date? and I have another one later??  
I really like him  
like, a lot

**From The Only Sane One:** I take it that it went well!  
That's awesome Kerfy!

**To The Only Sane One:** haha thanks I think?  
Josty's being kind of pushy and like  
I know he means well, and I don't think I'd be doing any of this today if it wasn't for him  
But he keeps threatening to spill shit to the group chat and I don't know how to tell him I kind of want to keep things on the dl for a little while  
Does that make me a dick?

**From The Only Sane One:** It absolutely doesn't.  
You're allowed to have feelings, and you're allowed to keep those feelings private  
I do think that he was just trying to help in his own Josty way.  
Try to make sure that your date was treating you right.  
That doesn't make it okay, but just to explain, yeah?

Alexander sighs.

**To The Only Sane One:** yeah, I know. he's not trying to be a dick, but…  
I just want to have this thing for myself for a little while.  
I guess I'll try talking to him again.

**From The Only Sane One:** I'm here to meditate or talk more if you need it.

**To The Only Sane One:** maybe tomorrow after practice?  
I'm okay right now, I promise.  
but we have another date tonight, and I think I'm spending the night with him.

**From The Only Sane One:** That’s great!  
I can talk to the chat and tell them to lay off  
Or at least tell Gabe to tell them

**To The Only Sane One:** I… yeah, please.  
I don't want to seem like I can't handle it, but right now, I don't want to. not yet.  
trying to figure things out while EJ's constantly threatening to fine me isn't the best thing, probably.

**From The Only Sane One:** Consider it done, bud.

Alexander sets his phone on his nightstand and walks out. "Hey, Tys?"

"Sup, Kerf?" Josty says, his eyes trained on his phone screen.

"Can I talk to you?" Alexander asks. "Like, just for a minute, I promise."

Josty frowns and puts his phone down. "I'm guessing this has something to do with Colin telling the group chat to shut the fuck up?"

Alexander's eyes go wide. “He did not."

"I mean, no, but he used the Colin words for that," Josty says, shrugging. "What's up?"

"I'd like to handle this thing with JT on my own for a little while, okay? Make sure everything's okay before I really like, _tell_ anyone, and I'd appreciate it if every time I wanted to keep something to myself that I was listened to," Alexander says, running his thumbnail over his pointer finger. Josty sits up.

"Yeah, sure, of course. That totally makes sense. I'm really sorry, I just—I wasn't thinking. I'd _never_ actually do any of what I said, I'm sorry it sounded like I was being serious," Josty says.

Alexander smiles, relieved. "Thanks," he says. "It's just—I like him? Kind of a lot, and it's going really fast, and I want to make sure I can focus on what's happening without worrying about what everyone's thinking about it."

"Of course, man," Josty says. "I get it. I'm in your corner. We're that Lorde song, and not just because we're both Avs."

Alexander laughs. "Thanks, Josty."

"Can I tell you something I haven't really told anyone before except maybe Barzy?" Josty says softly. "I'd liked Fabbs for a while, and when we got together, everything went really fast, and I was kind of afraid to take a step back, but, like? Don't be afraid to, like, communicate if you're uncomfortable. If he's a good person, he'll understand. And if not, you know I'll beat him up."

"Please stop offering to beat him up," Alexander says, but he's smiling. "That's really sweet, Tys. I’ll be sure to make sure to take time and talk to him. I'm gonna see where things go tonight, and I promise I can handle it if it goes wrong." He doesn't think it will, and he really hopes he's right, but he absolutely can and will take care of himself if it goes to shit.

"Yeah, of course. Sorry, you're just, like, my best friend, dude. Of course you can handle yourself," Josty grins. It definitely goes both ways; Josty is Alexander's best friend, too.

"Awesome," Alexander says. "And, like, I'll beat Dante up if he ever pulls shit. I'm on your team, too."

Josty laughs. "Go team us," he says. "Also, I'm begging you, don't fight Dante. He'll break you."

"Yeah, probably. But still," he shrugs. "Team us, yeah?"

"Get your boy to fight him," Josty says, perking up. "That would be hot."

Alexander groans. "Can we not?"

"I mean, if it actually bugs you…" Josty starts.

"It doesn't," Alexander says. "You're gonna be you."

"I am," Josty agrees with a smile.

-0-

Seven o'clock rolls around faster than Alexander had anticipated. 

"Tyson!" he calls from the bathroom.

"Who died?" Josty says, almost sliding past the doorway in his socks.

"I need to pick a tie, fuck," Alexander groans.

"Okay, okay," Josty says, grabbing his phone. "We'll FaceTime Colin. Hang on."

Alexander blows out a breath. "I should've thought of that."

"That's what I'm here for," Josty says. "Backup brain." He thumbs open Colin's contact and hits the button to call. "Hey Colin!"

"What's on fire now, Josty?" Colin asks, an eyebrow raised. Alexander would laugh if he wasn't so terrified.

"That happened _once_ —"

"Twice," Colin interjects.

"That was just a _little_ fire!" Josty says. "Gas stoves are complicated!"

“Help," Alexander says, because if he doesn't, he's gonna have to hear about different kinds of burns _again_. "Colin, I need a tie."

"And colors are a mystery to me," Josty adds. "So help."

"Okay, what are you wearing?" Colin asks. Josty turns the camera around to show Alexander, and Colin sighs. "First off, don't wear brown shoes with a blue suit, and second of all, since you have a solid white shirt, you can go for a splash of color, or a pattern. I'd go with the burgundy tie."

"Wait, what shoes do I wear, then?" Alexander asks, looking down. "These are my nice shoes!"

"Do you..." Colin asks cautiously. "Do you only own one pair of nice shoes?"

Alexander shrugs. "Maybe?"

"You haven't been in his closet, Colin. It's like Narnia in there," Josty says. "What shoes should he wear?"

"You could also wear a different suit. I know you've got the grey one. You looked really good in that," Colin says.

Alexander perks up. "With the burgundy tie still?"

"Wait, wait," Josty says. "What about the one with the vest?"

"The red one?" Alexander asks. Josty nods. "Yeah, what about the red one, Colin?"

"Let's… save that for date number two," Colin says.

"This _is_ date number two!" Josty exclaims. "They had brunch!"

"Date three, then," Colin says. "Don't wear the vest today. Gotta save that one, okay? Go with the grey one."

"Don't worry, the vest will have its day," Josty says. 

Colin chuckles. "Is that all you needed?"

"Yup! Thanks, Colin," Josty says.

Just as he goes to end the call, Alexander says, "Wait! What about cologne?"

"What about it?" Colin asks.

"Do I wear it?" Alexander asks.

"Again, I say: do you even _own_ any?" Josty asks.

"Yeah," Alexander says again. "It's on my dresser. It's been there since we moved in here."

"If you haven't used it in all that time, then I'm gonna say don't use it now," Colin says. "Also, we're going shoe shopping soon. Bye!"

"So we figured that out," Josty nods. "Let's get your suit, and then Compher should be here."

Alexander's stomach flips over. “Shit, what time is it?"

"Time to change into the grey suit and not worry about what time it is," Josty says smoothly. "Go change."

Alexander nods. "Do I wear a watch?"

Josty rolls his eyes. "Well, since you're so concerned with the time, I’d probably say yes."

Alexander makes a face. "Why aren't you helpful?"

"I'm very helpful," Josty says. "I called Colin, didn't I?"

"No, no. _Colin_ was helpful. _You're_ annoying," Alexander says.

"Wear the watch. Statement piece. Make him think you're sophisticated and not a nerd that plays Catan with the other rookies," Josty says.

"If he doesn't like me at my board games, then he doesn't deserve me at my statement piece," Alexander says. "But I’ll wear the watch, I think. Thanks."

Josty salutes with a smile. "Happy to help. Now go put on the suit before he gets here!"

"I'm going, I'm going," Alexander says. He doesn't check his phone as he starts changing, because he's kind of afraid of what time it is. He doesn't want to be late, to keep JT waiting, just in case it makes JT think he's not interested. He's totally interested, and he wants to make that super clear.

Josty walks in and hoots. "Oh my _god_ , you look _hot_!" 

"Thanks?" Alexander flushes.

Josty whistles, as if his comment hadn't been enough. "I mean, I'd do you."

"That's not exactly a high bar to clear," Alexander says. "I remember the pre-Dante days."

"I'd get a hall pass from Dante to do you now," Josty says. "Is that better?"

"Not by much, buddy," Alexander laughs. He does up the tie and puts the watch on. "Okay, I'm ready."

"And there's some guy by the name of JT asking to be buzzed up," Josty says. He's doing something on his phone. "Says he knows you."

Alexander freezes. "He's here?"

"His name is _Joseph_?" Josty says, and when he turns around, he's got JT's Wikipedia page up. "Never mind, date cancelled. You can't date a guy named Joseph, that's so lame."

"Whatever, _Tyson_ ," Alexander says. "At least he's the only Joseph on his team."

"Low blow! And I'm the better Tyson, so like, whatever," Josty says. "Also, he's waiting, so."

"Right, shit," Alexander says. "Did you buzz him up, or—"

There's a knock at the door.

"That's probably him," Josty says. "Since I didn't order the pizza yet."

"I—you—I'm going to kill you," Alexander says, letting Josty push him to the door. 

"Have fun, you crazy kid! Be back by 7 am!" Josty says.

"Not a chance in hell," Alexander retorts, grabbing his overnight bag. "I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for… everything, I guess."

"You're welcome!" Josty says with a smile. "Have fun. Seriously."

There's another knock, and Alexander pales. "Righ, date. Right. Okay." He opens the door, and there's JT, and okay, seriously? It's not fair how good he looks.

"Well, thank you. You clean up well too," JT says, flushing, and okay, maybe Alexander said that out loud. 

Josty snorts. "Get a room."

"Mine's right there, and we could be loud," Alexander calls back, not looking away from JT. "Jay, this is Tyson Jost, my roommate and sometimes my best friend, although right now he's asking to be demoted."

"As roommate or best friend?" JT asks with a laugh. 

Alexander raises an eyebrow and rolls his eyes. "Both."

"You tried replacing me with Biggy that one time, and look how that went," Josty says. "JT, man, nice to sort of meet you. I've been told I'm not allowed to threaten you, so consider this me not threatening you."

JT raises both eyebrows. "Uh. I… will?"

"Did I do good?" Josty asks. Alexander takes a deep breath.

"We're going now! Bye!" Alexander says.

"But did I do good?" Josty calls after them. "Colin made me promise to be good!"

Alexander calls the elevator and doesn't answer him, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

Josty sighs dramatically and closes the door.

"Is he…” JT trails off, eyebrows furrowed as he looks in the direction of Alexander’s apartment.

"Always that much? Yeah," Alexander says with a smile.

"I like him already,” JT grins.

"Oh good," Alexander says. "Because we're not exactly a package deal, but he's one of my favorite people, so."

"Then I hope he likes me," JT says. "If he's that important to you, his opinion matters."

Alexander flushes. "You think so?"

"Yeah," JT says, his smile soft.

"Good to know," Alexander says. He's feeling a little brave, so he reaches out and grabs JT's hand, squeezing it gently. "For the record, I'm gonna have to text Colin once we get in the car, because if I don't tell him Josty was good I'll never hear the end of it."

JT laughs. "Okay."

"He's like the mom friend," Alexander says. "it's… kind of hard to explain, I think? It's hockey."

"I wish I could say I understand, but Jokic is probably the closest to the mom friend our team has," JT says. "And he's the captain, so it's kind of his job."

"I think he's too scary to be the mom friend," Alexander says. "Unless he's a lot nicer in person than he looks on TV."

"Let's just say there's not a dry eye in the house when we watch _The Notebook_ on team-building night," JT says with a knowing smile.

"Oh, same, for sure," Alexander says, laughing as the elevator doors open. "There's a ban on _Up_ in our locker room, too."

"What about _The Good Dinosaur_? Man, that shit is _sad_ ," JT says as they head for the car.

"The general rule of thumb is that EJ doesn't get to pick team movies, because he doesn't have emotions and he likes watching us cry," Alexander says. "Anything else is good, though."

JT snorts. "Which one is he? The tall one that likes to fight? And pull pranks on the ice?"

Alexander looks at him for a second. "You're… you’re going to have to be more specific."

"He has all his teeth," JT specifies.

"Not EJ," Alexander says instantly. "Probably Z? Nikita Zadorov. He's actually super friendly, and his kid is adorable."

"EJ," JT says, narrowing his eyes. "I'm gonna need a photo, I think."

Alexander goes to the groupchat.

**To the last of the real ones:** guys I need a bad photo of EJ  
**Captain hotpants:** you mean every photo  
**Horsegirl:** no such thing they're all 10s  
or 11s  
**g:** [sends three photos]  
**Horsegirl:** what did I ever do to you????  
**g:** do you want that alphabetically or chronologically?

Alexander saves the photos and mutes the groupchat, because the reasons will definitely be public, and he doesn't need to be scarred tonight. "Here," he says, handing his phone to JT.

"Uh, he sure is—" JT begins.

"He sure is," Alexander confirms. "Apparently there's something attractive about his whole… whatever he's got going on, because his partner sent those to me."

JT snorts. "I mean, if they sold him out so quickly…"

"It's kind of their thing," Alexander offers. "I don't really know how to explain that, either."

"Hashtag hockey?" JT asks, grinning. "Is that gonna be a thing in our relationship?"

"Hashtag basketball and hashtag hockey. God, I feel hip with the kids again," Alexander says, grinning when JT snorts.

"Sure. How old are you? 90?" JT asks as they walk up to a car. "This one's me."

"Some days I feel like it," Alexander says, sighing as JT unlocks the doors. He climbs in, then turns to JT. "I just turned 24."

"Cradle robber," JT says, putting a hand to his chest. "I'm 23. 24 in the spring."

"Always thought I had what it took to be a cougar," Alexander says.

"With that ass? Absolutely," JT says.

Alexander trips over nothing. "Uh?"

JT's smiling smugly, and Alexander wants to kiss it off of him. "You heard me."

Alexander glances around to make sure nobody can overhear them, then steps a little closer. "With those arms? I bet you could lift me up and get a nice handful."

JT's breath hitches, and his face flushes as dark as Alexander's tie. "Bet you I could."

"But after dinner," Alexander says, stepping back. "Because I have to tell you, I really want steak."

"I like a man who knows what he wants," JT says. Alexander smirks.

"Yeah," he says, looking JT up and down. "And now, I want meat."

JT chokes, and then he starts laughing. "I think I can take care of that," he says. "Depending on what you order, at least."

"Medium rare, of course. I like my meat a little pink," Alexander grins.

"Then I can definitely give you what you're asking for," JT says, not missing a beat. "After dinner, though. We have reservations."

"Oh?" Alexander asks. "You really went all out, huh?"

"Yeah, I got us a table in a room where we won't be recognized," JT says.

Alexander smiles. "Good thinking. Thanks."

"I really want this to go well," JT adds softly. "It seemed like the right call."

Alexander's stomach swoops. "Me too," he says.

"Good," JT says with a smile. 

The drive to the restaurant isn't long; Alexander's glad, because he's a little nervous, and a longer ride would give him more opportunities to put his foot in his mouth, which is exactly what he doesn't need.

Of course, the restaurant is amazing. 

"I'm sorry, you got us reservations at _Guard and Grace_? It's booked out for _months_ ," Alexander says, more than a little flabbergasted.

JT grins and ducks his head. "I maybe have a connection," he says. "By which I mean, I had Joker call and make a reservation for me, because he's definitely the mom friend."

"That's really, _really_ sweet, Jay," Alexander says, flushing.

JT smiles. "I just hope it lives up to the reputation."

"I think it will. Gabe came here with his partner—who's _apparently_ a foodie now—and they raved about it for _weeks,_ " Alexander says.

"Oh, nice," JT says. "Any idea what they had? Maybe we can order it and then mock their taste if it's awful."

Alexander laughs. "I like the way you think, but unfortunately, I have no idea."

"What, neither of them is an insta foodie?" JT asks. "No photos of every latte for the Avs?"

Alexander's face lit up. "Brutes's finsta. Hold on, oh my god." He logs on and sure enough, it’s there. "Oh my god, you're a _genius_ , Jay."

"Oh man, that looks good," JT says when Alexander shows him the photo. "I don't know if I can mock it if it's even half as good as it looks."

"You're probably right, but I’ll still try," Alexander grins.

"Good," JT says, grinning as the waiter comes over. "Do we want an appetizer or anything?"

"Up to you," Alexander says, tangling their ankles together. "I'm not picky."

"Okay," JT says. He glances at the menu and points at something, showing it to the waiter, then orders his entree. He looks over at Alexander and laughs. "I'm glad we're at a steakhouse and not some, like, fancy French place. My French is… uh, bad."

"Oh, man, _je ne parlais pas?_ " Alexander asks, laughing at JT's expression. "I took it in college. I can get by, but that's all I really know."

"I mean, you probably use it more than I do," JT says. "There are French speakers on your team, right?"

"Honestly, all I can pick up on is when Sammy's swearing at me," Alexander admits. "The rest of it goes by too fast for me to catch, and Quebecois is so different from textbook French that it's almost a different language."

"I mean, it's still hot," JT says. His eyes widen and his face flushes. "I mean—"

Alexander laughs, delighted. "Even with my atrocious accent?"

JT's face is as red as his hair. "I feel like I’ve forgotten more Spanish than I ever learned, so the fact that you remember any of it seems huge to me."

"But please, tell me more about how my terrible French is attractive to you." Alexander rests his chin in his hands, grinning at JT like the Cheshire cat.

"I mean," JT says, lowering his voice. "I can, but I should probably wait until after we leave."

Alexander flushes. "Oh, shut up," he says. "How did Harris react when you got to practice? Does he have a makeout radar? Because Josty had a _time_ chirping me for this." He tilts his chin up so JT can see the mark he left.

"Gary was later to practice than I was, so everything was totally fine," JT says. "Also, I'd say I'm sorry but I don't think I am, and I’ve heard it's bad to start a relationship on a lie."

"You're the worst," Alexander says, grinning. "The absolute worst. I take it back, I don't like you at all." His smile is probably making a total liar out of him.

JT laughs. "Well, that's a shame, because I definitely like you."

Alexander ducks his head. "Who's trying to charm who now?"

"You make it pretty easy," JT says smoothly. His face goes red right after, though. "Would it be weird if I asked you something sappy?"

"Not at all," Alexander says.

JT laughs quietly. "Can I hold your hand?"

Alexander's smile goes soft, and he nods. "Yeah, of course you can, Jay."

JT lays his hand out on the table, and when Alexander takes it, his smile gets a little goofy. "This is nice," he says, laughing a little. "And super corny, but I still like it."

"I have a feeling a lot of things with you are going to be super corny," Alexander says with a grin.

"Maybe," JT allows. "I guess we'll just have to see, huh?"

"I guess we will," Alexander says.

-0-

Dinner is exactly as good as Gabe and Tyson Sr. had led him to believe it would be, and Alexander has no regrets at all about copying their order. It means that dinner itself is kind of quiet; they're both pro athletes, so they mostly just shovel the food into their mouths. It's still nice, though, and JT insists on paying at the end, and then he takes Alexander's hand as soon as they get outside into the dark of the night.

"You didn't have to pay, I would've gotten it," Alexander insists.

JT just shakes his head. "I took you out. We barely ate brunch this morning, so I wanted to make sure that this was good."

"It was," Alexander says, squeezing his hand. "Next time I'm taking you out. I don't think I can get reservations quite this fancy, but I'll see what I can swing."

JT laughs. "We could get burgers at a dive bar and I think I’d be just as happy."

"I would never have thought you were this sappy, JT Compher," Alexander grins. "It's sweet. I like it."

"I'm glad, because there's a lot more where that came from," JT says. They're almost to his car, and JT squeezes his hand once more before dropping it. "Still want to come home with me? I can take you back to your place if you'd rather."

"No, I wanna go home with you," Alexander says, leaning up to press a kiss to the corner of JT's lips. "That okay?"

"Very okay," JT murmurs. "I can give you the full tour this time."

"Oh really? Because I'm looking forward to seeing the open concept kitchen," Alexander grins, putting his hands on JT's hips.

"It's a very nice kitchen," JT agrees. "We can spend some time there if you want, or there are some other places I can show you."

Alexander flushes. "Oh yeah? Like what?"

"Really nice living room," JT muses. "I’ve got a great view of downtown."

Alexander snorts, tucking his face into JT's neck. "Did you really just use a line on me?"

JT laughs. "To be fair, I've been using lines on you all night."

"What if I said I wanted to see the bedroom specifically?" Alexander asks.

"I guess I could make that happen," JT says, smirking. "Only if you ask nicely, though."

Alexander grins. "I can ask very, _very_ nicely, if that's what you're into."

JT flushes dark. "I really, _really_ am."

"Then you should take me home," Alexander says, stepping back. "Please."

"Don't start that while I'm driving," JT says, his face already so dark. "That's not fair."

Alexander laughs. "I'll hold back," he promises. "Mostly because payback is a bitch, and I don't want it to come back to bite me in the ass later. For the record, I'm not into that."

"Biting?" JT asks, chuckling slightly. 

"My ass," Alexander specifies. "Please don't bite my ass."

" _Oh,_ so anywhere else is fair game? I'll remember that," JT grins.

Alexander laughs. "Only if you ask first."

"I can do that," JT says. He motions to the car. "Shall we?"

"Yeah, let's," Alexander says, getting in the passenger seat.

They're farther from JT's place this time, but it's easier than the drive to the restaurant had been. Alexander's less nervous now, for one, and that helps immensely.

JT parks the car and they don't exactly run into the building, but they _do_ walk incredibly fast. He jabs at the elevator button this time, which means that Alexander doesn't have to contemplate running up the stairs in his suit. it's not that he wouldn't, but there's much less of a chance he'll need to get it dry-cleaned if he doesn't sweat in it dashing up the stairs.

"Don't want the exercise?" Alexander asks with a smirk when the elevator doors open. He walks in and is crowded into a corner by JT. He looks up at JT through his lashes. "Hey, you."

"Figure I'll get my fill of exercise soon enough," JT says, putting his hands on Alexander's hips and drawing him closer. "Also, I had a full practice today. I'm conserving my energy here."

"Oh, you're right," Alexander says innocently, rolling his hips against JT's. "You must be tired. Do you want to do something else?"

"Actually," JT says, and he glances down at Alexander's mouth before looking over his shoulder. "I… wouldn't mind that? I mean, if you want to have sex, we can do that, but I'm not 100% committed to the idea. Not tonight, anyway."

Alexander smiles a little and nods. "Of course. We could watch a movie instead? I've picked up a few good cuddle moves from Josty."

JT relaxes under Alexander's hands. "That sounds great," he says. "I’ve got Netflix, and we can _actually_ chill. My couch is pretty great."

"Those are some pretty big shoes to fill, since my couch is probably the most comfortable couch I've ever sat on," Alexander says. "Netflix and cuddling sounds amazing. I'm super into it."

JT leans down and puts his forehead against Alexander's. "I just don't want to take this so fast we miss stuff," he says, kind of quiet. "Which I know is the cheesiest thing to say, but I'd rather take it slow with you. Even if that's not what we sort of planned for tonight."

"You're right," Alexander says. "That was super cheesy, but also sweet. Let's take it slow." He leans in and presses a gentle kiss to JT's lips. "Everything's okay."

JT kisses him back, and it's soft and sweet. "Okay, I'm glad."

"I hope you're a good little spoon, because I'm a big spoon," Alexander says as he pulls back.

"I can be little spoon," JT says. "I'm definitely a blanket hog, though."

"We'll figure it out. I'm definitely a person that has too many pillows and blankets on my bed, so it works out." Alexander says.

JT smiles. "Oh, good. I’d hate for this to end over something as dumb as being bad at sleeping in the same bed as each other."

Alexander laughs. "Listen, apparently I throw off major body heat, so if that's something you're looking for, you've found a furnace.”

"That's good to know," JT says. "I like sleeping with it chilly so I can have a nice warm bed, so that'll definitely be a plus."

"Oh, same," Alexander says as the elevator doors open. He reaches down to hold JT's hand, his chest warming when JT smiles widely.

"Now we just have to figure out if we have compatible taste in movies," JT says, leading him down the hallway. "Anything else we can work on, probably, but the movies thing is an essential building block. If all you watch is documentaries about sharks or some shit, I'm calling this off and driving you home now."

"Oh man, but I _love_ watching documentaries about historical figures," Alexander says as seriously as he can manage, but he breaks down laughing at JT's unamused expression. "I'm kidding!"

"Good, because we're watching _Pacific Rim_ ," JT says firmly. "Gotta see how you like my favorite movie."

"Which one is that?" Alexander asks, eyes widening at JT's shellshocked expression. "What?!"

JT blinks at him a few times. "Do you live under a rock?"

"I play hockey." Alexander shrugs. "It's kind of like living under a rock. Tell me about your movie."

"Idris Elba, giant robots, Godzilla monsters," JT says. "There's nothing not to love."

"You had me at Idris Elba. He was the best part about Thor," Alexander says.

"He's the best part about everything he's in," JT says firmly. "Gorgeous, amazing voice, incredible actor? Give the man all the awards."

"That's very, very true. God, I'd climb him like a tree," Alexander sighs. "I—I mean—"

"I mean, you're not wrong. I think everyone would," JT laughs.

"I'm glad we agree on this," Alexander says, laughing. They pause outside JT's door, and Alexander waits while he unlocks it so they can walk inside. "I'm definitely down to watch Idris Elba fight some giant monsters, but I think I'd like to change first. Cuddling is better in… not a suit." He pauses, and his eyes widen. "Shit, I forgot my bag in the car."

"Don't worry, you can borrow some of my stuff," JT says. "Come on."

Alexander follows him into the apartment, down the hallway and into the bedroom. JT rummages around in a drawer for a moment, then comes out with a soft-looking Nuggets tee and a pair of sweats. "This good?" he asks.

Alexander nods and takes it from him. "That looks great. I'll be right back."

He hurries into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. "Get a grip," he mutters to himself, and then he sighs and opens the door back up. "Uh, can I borrow a hanger? For the suit?"

"Yeah," JT calls, and then comes back out, in sweats and no shirt. "Uh, here," he says, handing Alexander a hanger.

"Thanks," Alexander says, voice a little stangled as he grabs it and retreats to the relative safety of the bathroom. He takes a couple of deep breaths and moves to put up the suit.

JT knocks on the door. "I'm gonna queue up the movie okay? Do you want some popcorn?"

"Nah," Alexander says, staring at his reflection in the mirror. "Maybe some water? I'm full from dinner still."

"Got it," JT says.

Alexander nods at his reflection and starts changing. JT isn't in the bedroom when he walks out, so Alexander makes his way to the living room. There are two glasses of water on the table, and JT's snuggled in a blanket pile, scrolling through his phone. When he sees Alexander, his smile grows wider and Alexander's heart flutters.

"You weren't kidding about being a blanket hog," Alexander says, sitting next to him on the couch. JT nods, lifting the side of the bunch of blankets for Alexander to snuggle against.

"I take movie night cuddle sessions very seriously," JT says.

"That's good to know," Alexander says, sliding in next to him. "They're serious business."

"Glad we're on the same page," JT says, leaning into him, his smile going soft when Alexander wraps an arm around JT's waist.

"Show me your monster movie," Alexander says, leaning his head against JT's shoulder.

"Get ready to have a new favorite movie, A," JT says, hitting play on the movie.

"A?" Alexander asks.

JT flushes. "Like, short for Alexander? And then we both have letter names."

Alexander smiles, kissing behind JT's ear. "I like it."

JT lets out a breath. "Oh, good. I wasn't sure you would, since you were kind of adamant that your name was just Alexander."

Alexander makes a face. "I just don't like being called Alex."

"Yeah, you're not an Alex," JT agrees. "Do you like it, though? Because I don't have to use it."

"No, it's sweet," Alexander says, holding JT a little tighter. "Jay and A. Kind of sounds like a sitcom."

JT snorts. "As long as neither of us has to be Ross."

"Ross died of influenza." Alexander deadpans.

"I can't believe Rachel got off the plane for him," JT mutters. "She deserved better."

" _She_ should have married the British girl, _god_ ," Alexander says.

"Uh, excuse you, she should have married Monica," JT says.

"You know what? Valid point," Alexander says, nodding. "She should have married Joey. She should have married Joey's Rangers jersey. She should have done anything other than ending up with Ross."

JT snorts. "You're so right. Ross was a complete douche."

"He sure was," Alexander agrees. "Crisis averted. If you liked Ross, that might be a dealbreaker."

"The unsung adorable hero on that show was Joey, and I take no criticism," JT says.

"Why would I criticize such an obviously right take?" Alexander asks.

"Marry me," JT replies, laughing.

Alexander grins. "We need to see if I like your movie first. Ask me later."

-0-

Alexander loves the movie, but more than that, he loves watching JT watch the movie. He mumbles along with parts of it, and he tears up at Idris Elba's big "cancelling the apocalypse" speech. For someone who is known media-wide as a person who doesn't show any emotions, JT sure has a lot of them.

"I just," JT says, waving at the screen. "They cleared a path for the lady, y'know? It's a lot."

"I know," Alexander says, patting JT's leg. It was honestly better than he'd been expecting, and he definitely gets how emotional JT is now. "It really is a great movie."

"I'm so glad you like it," JT says, resting his head on Alexander's.

"I'm pretty sure I can use it at team movie night to make everyone cry," Alexander says thoughtfully. "If nothing else, it'll beat watching _Seabiscuit_ for the fiftieth time."

"What's _Seabiscuit_?" JT asks, raising an eyebrow. "Do I want to know?

"It's a horse movie," Alexander says. He doesn't mean for it to sound so grim, but that's just his reaction to it at this point. "EJ has a whole horse… thing."

JT chuckles, but it trails off when Alexander doesn't join in. "Oh, wait, you're serious. What's a 'horse thing?'"

"He's in my phone as Horsegirl," Alexander says flatly. "His entire personality is horses. God only knows why Sammy loves him. Like, he's a great person, but his whole brain is hockey and horses."

"Interesting. Like Horsegirl as in..." JT puts his hands up like hooves and does a sort of pathetic neighing sound.

"I don't think he's a furry, if that's what you're asking," Alexander says as blandly as he can manage.

JT chokes. "I _wasn't_ , oh my _god_."

"Well, now you know anyway," Alexander says, patting his arm. "Hashtag hockey?"

"I guess," JT says, laughing. "I'm quickly learning that basketball is _nothing_ like hockey."

"We can compare notes," Alexander says. "but not tonight. I think there are too many notes for tonight."

"Then let's get to bed. This couch may be comfy, but my bed is even comfier. Unless you want to sleep in the guest room," JT says. "That's totally fine—"

"I don't want to sleep in the guest room," Alexander cuts in. "Unless you don't want to share."

"No! No, I want you in my bed," JT says quickly. "To sleep. Tonight."

"Good," Alexander says, smiling. "Do you have a spare toothbrush? If not, I'll run back to the car to grab my bag."

"There should be some under the sink," JT says. "I get them at Costco, so I've got, like, five extras right now."

"Cool, then I can take whichever color I like," Alexander says, grinning as he stands. "You coming with me?"

JT nods, yawning. "You can use the en suite bathroom with me if you'd like?"

"Yeah, I’d like that," Alexander says. He's trying not to dwell on how domestic this feels; this is, at best, their second date, so he tells himself firmly that he's not allowed to feel at home in JT's space yet. He's not sure he's actually succeeding at that, but he's trying.

JT takes his hand, because _it's dark in the house, I don't want you to trip,_ and leads them to the bathroom. He keeps smiling while they're brushing their teeth and somehow, Alexander feels that JT's thinking the same thing.

It’s easy to get ready for bed together. They stumble into each other more than once, but it's somehow never awkward. By the time they're climbing into bed, JT rolling onto his side so Alexander can spoon up behind him, Alexander feels like this is something he's already used to, and he really likes it.

"Night," JT says sleepily.

"G'night," Alexander whispers, pressing a soft kiss right behind JT's ear.

JT hums, and they fall asleep between one breath and the next.

-0-

Alexander blinks his eyes open slowly, and it takes him a moment to remember: JT's place, a movie, falling asleep curled around each other. He's alone in the bed now, but he can hear noise coming from the direction of the bathroom, and JT emerges as he turns over to face the door.

"Hey," JT says, rubbing a towel over his hair. He's in low hanging sweats, and _fuck._ "Sleepy you is cute, but I'm quickly learning that that's just you, huh?"

Alexander feels his face go red, but he doesn't lift his face from the pillow as he smiles. "You're one to talk."

JT smiles softly. "I can make breakfast, unless you'd like to stay in bed until you've got to leave for practice."

"No, I need to eat," Alexander says, rolling onto his back and stretching. "Maybe we can heat up the leftovers from yesterday? I need to try this famous brunch."

"That sounds like a great idea," JT says. "I promise you you're gonna love it."

"You've built it up so much, I'm afraid of what'll happen if I don't," Alexander says with a laugh.

"Then I _guess_ I'll have to take you to another diner, shucks. It's like I like you or something," JT says, walking over to his dresser to pick out a shirt.

"Careful, if you keep saying that I might believe it," Alexander says, sitting up.

"Good," JT says, kneeling on the bed to lean over and kiss Alexander gently.

Alexander pulls away after a minute, and he doesn't even care how soft the smile on his own face probably looks, because JT's is the same. "G'morning."

"Morning, you," JT says softly, reaching his hand up to swipe his thumb over Alexander's lip.

Alexander hums and presses a kiss to it. "Can I shower?"

"Nope, of course not," JT deadpans, then breaks into a smile. "Yeah, go ahead. I can get you a towel in a second, okay?"

"Okay," Alexander says. "And I need to get my stuff out of your car, or I'm not gonna have anything to wear to practice."

"It's cold, though," JT says, kneeling between Alexander's legs. "Can I get you to wear something of mine?"

"It's not that cold," Alexander says, laughing. "But if you want me to wear your clothes to practice, I can do that."

JT flushes. "I never said that," he says, looking down.

"Then let me get my stuff from the car," Alexander says, grinning.

"Fucking _okay_ , I want you to wear my clothes," JT mumbles.

"All you had to do was say it," Alexander says softly, leaning up to kiss him. "Something with your name on it, yeah? So all the guys see."

"You're the worst," JT kisses him deep, and when he pulls back, his cheeks are red. He rests his forehead on Alexander's shoulder and sighs. "I've got the perfect thing."

"Good," Alexander says. "Grab me a towel first, and then set it in the bathroom while I'm getting clean?"

"Yeah," JT says. "Of course."

Alexander kisses him again, just once. "Gotta move so I can get out of bed, babe." The endearment slips out before he catches it, and his eyes widen a little. "I mean—"

JT goes redder and smiles. "Babe, huh?" he says smugly.

"I could, like," Alexander says, and he can feel how red his face is. "Not?"

"No, you definitely should," JT says, and then pauses. "Baby."

Alexander bites his lip. "Yeah," he says. "Yeah, that's good."

"Yeah?" JT asks, looking up at Alexander through his lashes. "You like that?"

"I do," Alexander says, smiling. "But I would really, really like a shower, too."

JT laughs. "Yeah, of course, sorry. I forgot."

"Towel," Alexander reminds JT with a laugh, pushing gently against his chest. He's quickly learning that if he lets JT stay this close, they're just going to end up kissing. That's nice and great and all, but Alexander needs to eat before he leaves, and he needs to shower before he eats, and there's only so much time before practice.

"I'm going, I'm going," JT says, getting up. He's smiling wide, and Alexander's just already become so enamored with that smile. 

"I can come back later," Alexander says without thinking about it first. "If you're not, like, sick of me yet. This has been a pretty long second date."

"How could anyone be sick of you?" JT says, his voice going soft. His eyes go wide a moment later and he looks down. "I'm sorry, that was dumb."

"I think we might have to agree that we're both just gonna be like this," Alexander says, laughing. "How about this: I go home after practice, pack another bag, eat with my roommate so I'm sure he doesn't have Taco Bell takeout for two nights in a row, and then I'll come back over tonight?"

"Sounds like a plan," JT grins. He stands there for a second before pointing behind him. "I'm gonna—towel." 

"Yeah," Alexander agrees. when JT disappears into the bathroom, he finally pushes himself up and out of bed. He grabs his phone from the bedstand, glancing at his texts while he waits for JT. Josty keeps texting him question marks, which he can absolutely ignore, and the groupchat is talking about something having to do with a bet that Brutes is insisting he didn't lose. Alexander doesn't want to know. The only thing he replies to is a text from his mom, something about Soleil's birthday present, and then JT comes back out.

"Everything's on the counter. Shirt, sweats, towel," he says.

"Thanks," Alexander says, putting his phone down. "Give me fifteen, okay? Then we can heat up the leftovers."

"Okay," JT says, grabbing his phone and leaving the room.

Alexander showers quickly; too many years of locker room showers means he's got it down to a science, more or less, and he doesn't need that long to get himself clean. He dries off and pulls on the clothing JT left for him, smiling widely at his reflection when he sees JT's number over his heart and name across his shoulders.

JT's making coffee when Alexander walks into the kitchen. "Hey, coffee?" he asks. "Nothing fancy, just Kona blend from Safeway."

"That's the good stuff," Alexander says, grinning. "I’ll have a cup. Uh, would it be weird if I brought some tea over to keep here? That's what I normally drink."

JT grins. "That'd be fine. What kind of tea do you like?"

"Green tea, and some herbal stuff," Alexander replies. "I’ve got a bunch at home and a spare tea ball. I can grab them later."

"Oh, okay," JT says, taking out the leftovers. "Do you take milk in your tea? Or honey?"

"Just tea in my tea," Alexander laughs. "I don't really put anything else in it. Just leaves and water for me."

"Okay," JT says again. "What about eggs? Cheese, or just salt and pepper?"

"I'm not picky," Alexander says, shrugging. "Whatever you're making is fine."

"Good answer," JT says. "Because cheese on these eggs? Amazing."

"You're the expert," Alexander says. "I'm just along for the ride here."

"You might as well enjoy the trip," JT says, taking the plate out of the microwave. He hands it to Alexander. "Here."

It's hard for leftovers to actually look good, but they smell amazing. That's for sure the more important part, so Alexander grabs his fork and digs in.

JT takes a bite and sighs. "Kiera moved with me to Denver when I signed the contract with the Nuggets. She and my mom cooked all the time back home, and she made all of my mom's recipes her menu. I love going to her restaurant because it's like being back home, but without all the pressure of being a 'hot-shot basketball player' who made it big time." He actually uses finger quotes.

Alexander blinks. "That's great," he says. "Wow. I'm really flattered that you brought me there on a first date, to a place that means so much to you."

"I guess I could just tell you're special," JT says, looking down. "I hope you like it, though."

"It's really good," Alexander says, smiling before he takes another bite. It _is_ good, too, and it's kind of all he can do to not shovel the eggs into his mouth.

"You should try the pancakes. I hear the ones with, like, actual flour are amazing," JT grins.

"That'll have to be on an off day," Alexander says with a sigh. "If I try to skate after pancakes, I'm pretty sure it'll end badly."

"Oh definitely," JT grins. "When do you play next?"

"Tomorrow night," Alexander says. "Yesterday was an off day, so we don't have another one scheduled until like the middle of next week."

"Oh, cool," JT says. "Maybe I’ll go watch you."

Alexander laughs. "I can get you tickets," he offers. "We get a couple comped each game. Or I'm sure if you ask Tenner, she can get Emily to give you some, make it a reciprocal thing since I came to one of yours."

"Oh, that's true," JT says. "Though they'd probably film us again. Maybe another jersey swap."

Alexander feels something in his chest tighten. "I'm not gonna lie, I’d love to see you in my jersey."

"Yeah? Your name across my back?" JT smirks.

Alexander raises an eyebrow and plucks at the shirt he's wearing. "Yeah, you know anything about that feeling?"

JT flushes. "Shut up. You know I do."

Alexander grins. "Good thing we're both into it. That bodes well, right?"

"I would hope so," JT says, dragging his gaze over Alexander's chest, over where his number rests over Alexander's heart. 

Alexander coughs. "So, uh, when I come over tonight… we _can_ just hang out again, if that's what you want."

"We can… but we don't have to," JT says, his eyes a little dark.

"Are you sure?" Alexander says. "We were talking about taking it slow, so if you don't want to yet, that's fine, it really is."

"If it's what you want, then that's okay, but seeing you in my bed..." JT trails off.

"I want to have sex with you," Alexander says bluntly. He's not great at picking up on flirting and he'll be the first to admit that, but saying what he wants when he's pretty sure he'll get it? He's awesome at that.

The tips of JT's ears go red. "I do too." 

"Great," Alexander says. He licks his bottom lip and watches JT's gaze drop to his mouth. "I have a game tomorrow, so that's gonna limit what I can do, but we can definitely figure things out."

JT breathes in deep, his gaze trained on Alexander's mouth. "Fuck, okay."

Alexander smiles slowly. "We can make that happen."

"Oh, shut up," JT says, though he's smiling. Alexander's realized that JT flushes easily and he's going to milk that for all it's worth.

Alexander glances at his phone and sighs. "I need to get going," he says. "I can't be late for practice. Coach'll have my head."

"Yeah, okay," JT says, nodding. "We don't want that."

"Definitely not," Alexander agrees. "I'll call an Uber. walk me down?"

"I can do that," JT grins.

Alexander leans in and kisses him, mostly because he can. "Don't miss me too much," he says, grinning.

JT snorts. "How can I miss you if you won't go away?"

"Oh, you want to play that way, Mister _don't go outside because it's cold_?" Alexander smirks.

JT scoffs. "It is!"

"It's _October_ , dude. If you think this is cold, you're in for a surprise when winter happens for real," Alexander laughs.

"I've been here for the winter before," JT says, scowling. "Just because it gets colder doesn't mean it isn't already cold."

"Yeah, but you didn't want me to go," Alexander grins, wrapping his arms around JT's waist.

"I still don't want you to go," JT says, putting his hands on Alexander's hips. "If we're being honest here."

"Sap," Alexander grins, leaning in to kiss him.

JT kisses him back, and it's nice, easy, comfortable. It's the two of them in the kitchen, everything smelling like coffee and eggs and home, and Alexander absolutely doesn't want to step away and walk out and go to practice.

"Alright, let's go. Let me drive you back so you can go to practice," JT says, resting his forehead against Alexander's.

"I can take an Uber," Alexander says again. "You don't have to drive me home."

"C'mon, let me," JT says.

Alexander smiles. "If you insist."

"I do," JT says, smiling back.

"Okay, then," Alexander says. he presses his lips to JT's again, brief and soft, then pulls back. "We should get going."

The drive back to his place isn't long, which is a shame; it means that before Alexander is ready for it, JT pulls his car to a stop next to Alexander's building. 

"I'll see you later?" JT asks. He sounds almost hopeful, and it makes Alexander smile.

"Yeah," Alexander confirms. "I’ll text you before I head back to your place so you know I'm coming, but it won't be until after dinner."

"That's cool," JT nods. "Have a good practice?"

"Thanks," Alexander says, still smiling. He unbuckles his seat belt and opens the door. "Have a good day, whatever you do with it."

JT waves and smiles at Alexander before he drives off. Alexander doesn't stand there and watch him drive away, because he's not twelve, but he can't deny that he really wants to.

Josty's sitting at the breakfast bar drinking a smoothie when Alexander gets in. "How'd you like the steak?"

"Oh, man," Alexander says, grinning. "We went to Guard and Grace—that place that Brutes couldn't stop drooling over. Never tell him I said this, but he's right about the food."

Josty's face lit up. "No fucking way. That place is booked out for _months!_ I tried to get a table when Fabbs visited, and they were booked out until fucking _Christmas!_ "

"He pulled some strings," Alexander says, shrugging. "Apparently his team's version of Colin is, like, a big enough deal to make it work."

Josty grins. "I'm glad he's got a basketball version of Colin. Also, huh, that means you're kind of pretty special, huh?" he says.

Alexander blushes dark. "That's, uh. He said that, too."

"A sweet talker, huh?" Josty says, smiling. "Good. You deserve someone nice."

"He is," Alexander says, sitting at the other stool. "We, um. We didn't even do anything last night. We just watched a movie and then went to sleep."

Josty's face softens. "That's, like, really sweet. He really likes you, huh?"

"I think so," Alexander says, ducking his head. "I really like him, so I hope he likes me back. even if it feels like this is going at, like, lightning speed."

"If you need to talk about anything, I'm just down the hall," Josty says. "When are you seeing him again?"

"Uh," Alexander says. "Tonight?"

Josty raises an eyebrow. "My _dude._ "

"I did mention the lightning speed, right?" Alexander asks. "I told him I’d head back to his place after we ate dinner later."

"You're still _eating with me_ tonight? My guy, my dude, go get fucking _laid._ " Josty says.

"I'm gonna," Alexander says. At this rate his face is never going back to its normal color. "But I'm a little worried about your caloric intake, buddy, so I'm eating here after practice, and then I'm gonna go over."

"I have the ability to eat something. I can make pasta," Josty says, a little indignant. "Or I can go to Colin's." 

"I already made the plans, you're gonna have to live with them," Alexander says. "And I'm not afraid that you won't eat, I'm more afraid I'm going to find a stash of Taco Bell wrappers."

Josty opens his mouth to speak, but then closes it. "You are… correct. Come on, we're going to be late."

Alexander grins. "I'll make curried cauliflower," he promises as he stands and heads to grab his practice stuff. "It'll be good."

"Wait, no, seriously? You'll make it?" Josty asks. 

"I will," Alexander confirms. "We need to stop at the grocery on the way home, but I will."

"Good, I need Goldfish," Josty grins.

-0-

The guys pretty much leave him alone during practice, which means Colin put the fear of mom friend into them. Alexander's really grateful, honestly. They make what Alexander hopes is going to be a quick stop at the grocery on their way home, which turns into a half-hour hunt for the perfect Goldfish crackers, or at least that's what Josty told him was his reason for abandoning him in the produce section for that long. They get home in plenty of time for Alexander to cook before he heads over to JT's, which is nice.

"Hey, you," JT says when he opens the door. "You smell nice. What'd you have for dinner?"

"I made curried cauliflower," Alexander says, smiling as he leans up for a kiss. "I’ll have to make it for you sometime, but we'll need to get, like, gluten-free bread crumbs. Do they make those?"

"Yeah, they do actually," JT grins, pulling him close to kiss him. "I didn't know you were such a chef."

"It's pretty much the only thing I can make," Alexander says, laughing. "That and—oh, shit, I forgot the tea!"

JT smiles, a little soft. "About that. I've got some here? I did a little shopping today. A friend helped me pick out everything."

Alexander laughs. "You bought me tea? I didn't know you had a friend who knew tea. You should introduce us."

"Well," JT hedges. "I think you already know him."

It clicks a second later, and Alexander laughs. "Josty," he says. "I should've known he didn't need that long to find the Goldfish. It's not like they moved them."

"I was really lost, trying to figure out the tea you liked, and he came up and was really nice and helped me find a tea ball and everything," JT says. "He's a good guy."

"He is a good guy," Alexander says. He's extra glad he stayed and made real person food tonight. "Also, that means you probably have the green blend I really like, and that's great news for me. Kitchen?"

JT steps back and lets Alexander in. "You're gonna have to show me how to make tea, because I'm useless when it comes to that."

"It depends on the tea," Alexander says. "Most of them are labelled, though. Did he make you buy a teapot, or are we microwaving the water?"

"Oh, he told me to get the teapot," JT says, laughing.

Alexander grins. "I'm glad he was there to help," he says. He walks into the kitchen and sees that JT has already washed out the teapot; it's sitting in the dish rack next to the sink. He grabs it and fills it up, setting it on the stove. "He didn't have you get an electric one? This will definitely get the job done, but the electric ones are faster."

"I definitely asked about it, but he said _that's nice, let's start with this first,_ " JT snorts.

Alexander rolls his eyes. "Okay, so he was jerking your chain a little. Good to know."

JT grins. "Is that a good thing?"

"It makes me less concerned he's been replaced by a pod person," Alexander says, shrugging. "He's a great guy, but he's also kind of an asshole sometimes. The whole Mr. Nice Guy thing is a little weird if he wasn't at least a little sassy at some point."

"Ah, that makes sense," JT laughs. "I'll keep that in mind. He'd probably be good on my team in Fortnite."

Alexander snickers. "I dare you to ask him to join it."

"Bet," JT says, raising an eyebrow. "What do I get if I do?"

"A really funny reaction," Alexander says. "He doesn't play."

"Oh, well now I’ve _gotta_ ask him. Can you FaceTime him?" JT asks.

"It'll be better in person," Alexander says. "D'you want to come to the game tomorrow? I can get you down to the locker room after."

"Oh yeah? First your name across my back, now me meeting your boys? I think I can do that," JT grins, bringing Alexander close to him.

Alexander kisses him until the kettle starts chirping, then pulls back. "Tea," he says. "Watch closely, it's important."

JT tries and fails not to pout. "Tea. Very important."

Alexander bites his lip to keep from grinning as he walks JT through the steps: opening the tea ball, measuring out the tea, closing it up, putting it in the cup before pouring the water over it. He pulls his phone out and sets a timer when it's brewing, then gestures at the counter. "Got all that?"

JT's face is flushed, nodding. "I think so? Be prepared for some really shitty tea to begin with," he says. "But just in case, can you walk me through it all over again? I was just staring at your hands the entire time."

Alexander laughs. "Later," he promises. "You only have one tea ball, and this one isn't done steeping yet."

"You need more than one?" JT asks, clearly more than a little lost.

"If you want to make more than one cup of tea at once, yes," Alexander says patiently. "So I can't show you another cup until this one is done brewing."

"Right," JT says. "What'll we do until the tea is done brewing?"

"We only have like a minute and a half more," Alexander says. "Green tea doesn't brew for that long. What do you suggest we do for ninety seconds?"

"I'm stumped," JT says, pulling Alexander close. "Ninety whole seconds? You could do a lot in that time."

"If my tea scalds I'm going to be grumpy," Alexander says against his lips. "Seriously."

"Then listen to the alarm," JT says, nipping Alexander's bottom lip.

Alexander laughs. "I can do that," he says, winding his arms around JT’s neck.

JT grins brightly before he pulls Alexander close by his hips, humming against his lips. They kiss for a hilariously short amount of time, and then Alexander's alarm goes off. JT lets him go. "See? Alarms are good."

Alexander's flushed and sort of dazed. "Yeah, yeah, they are," he says, glancing at JT's kiss-bruised lips. 

JT raises an eyebrow and smirks. "Aren't you going to try the tea?"

"I mean," Alexander says, glancing at the mug. "You said you wanted me to show you again anyway."

"Try the tea, you can show me again later," JT says. "Besides, we'd have to wait for the tea to steep all over again, and that's just a lot of waiting for a cup of tea, isn't it?"

Alexander steps back and raises an eyebrow. "Tea's worth it."

JT throws his hands up in mock surrender. "Never said it wasn't, but you have a mug of tea right there."

"And I offered to skip drinking it for you, but now you get to watch me enjoy it instead," Alexander says, pulling the tea ball out and blowing at the top of the mug.

JT's eyes focus on his lips. "Uh-huh."

"It's just… really hot, you know? Gotta blow it to make it cooler," Alexander says. JT's gaze is stuck on his lips, and he bites his bottom lip slightly. 

"As long as you enjoy it," JT says, flushed dark.

Alexander grins slowly. "Oh, I will."

"Good," JT says, voice a little strangled.

He sips the drink, fully aware of JT's eyes on him. "Oh, that's _so_ good. God, I love tea," he says, smirking. "Everything okay, JT? You seem a little flustered."

"'M fine," JT says, leaning against the counter.

"Really?" Alexander asks. He takes another sip, then licks his bottom lip. "You sure about that?"

Alexander didn't think it was possible, but JT flushes darker. "God, I—"

"You know what," Alexander says, setting his mug down. "Maybe that's enough tea for right now."

"Please," JT says, stepping close to Alexander. 

Alexander reaches for him, tilting his head back when JT leans in, and this is definitely going to be longer than a minute while they wait for the tea. JT pulls him in close, hands spread wide on the small of Alexander's back as he kisses him deep. Alexander sort of feels like he's been on edge, waiting for this since they met. JT's hold is possessive, and he's not really shocked to discover that he really, really likes it.

He pulls back so their lips are barely touching and says, "Bedroom?"

"Shit, yes," JT says, sounding a little breathless.

Alexander grins. "Well, come on then," he says, leaning up to press a kiss to JT's lips.

He's glad that he spent the night last night for another reason now: it means he can lead JT down the hallway into his own bedroom instead of just following along behind him. It also means that he can press JT up against his own door and kiss down his neck and _god,_ the whine JT lets out goes straight to his dick.

"Fuck, Alexander," he moans.

Alexander sucks in a sharp breath. "Fuck," he says, pushing his hands under JT's shirt. "Can this come off? Now?"

JT nods fervently, pulling off his shirt and wow, if Alexander thought he knew how far the flush traveled down a couple of days ago, it's nothing compared to now. 

"Oh my god," he says, awed, tracing his fingers lightly down JT's chest. "Look at you."

"Shut up," JT says, closing his eyes and resting his head against the door. "You should look at yourself."

"I think that's your job," Alexander says, grinning. He steps back. "Should I…"

JT steps forward and hooks his fingers under the hem of Alexander's shirt. "God, yes, please."

Alexander raises his arms up. "You can do the honors if you want."

JT pulls the shirt off of Alexander and presses kisses down his neck and across his collarbone, nipping slightly as he goes along. "God, you're beautiful."

Alexander shifts forward so they're touching, skin to skin. "Kiss me."

JT leans up. "Yeah? I think I can do that," he says, and kisses him. It's much hotter this time, JT's arms wrapping around him and keeping him close as he kisses the life out of Alexander. Alexander rolls his hips against JT's and JT sucks in a sharp breath, so Alexander does it again, pressing his thigh in between JT's legs. 

"Fuck," JT gasps, pulling back and leaning his head against Alexander's as he rolls his hips in time. "Bed?"

"Fuck, yes," Alexander says, dragging JT to the bed. He falls down on it, pulling JT down with him. It's a lot, suddenly having almost 6' of basketball player on top of him, but Alexander's into it.

"Hey," JT grins, pressing a kiss to the corner of Alexander's mouth.

"Hi," Alexander replies. He puts his hands on JT's hips and grinds up against him. "Not that I'm upset that we just went to sleep last night, but _wow_ am I glad we're doing this now."

JT shudders. "Me too, fuck," he says, rolling his hips against Alexander. 

"What do you want?" Alexander asks. "I have to skate tomorrow, so I can't do anything that's gonna make me sore tonight."

"I—fuck." JT flushes dark. "I want you to fuck me."

Alexander sucks in a sharp breath and moves his hands to JT's ass. "Yeah?"

JT nods. "Yeah, like, really fucking badly."

"I'm totally into that idea," Alexander says. "You have stuff?"

"In the side table, yeah," JT says, reaching over to pull out a condom and lube. "Here."

Alexander squeezes his handful of JT's ass. "Let me finger you?"

JT sucks in a breath. "Fuck, fuck, yes. Fuck."

Alexander leans up to kiss him. "Pants off," he says.

"Yes sir," he grins, kissing Alexander as he pops the button on his jeans and slides them off.

Alexander plants his feet on the bed and wriggles out of his own pants, kicking them off before sitting up and looking down at JT. "Wow."

"Look who's talking," JT says.

Alexander taps JT's thigh, and JT spreads his legs so Alexander can sit between them. "How do you like it?"

"Slow at first," JT says. "Once I get used to it, you can go faster. It's, uh. Been a little while, so."

Alexander leans down to kiss him briefly. "I'll be gentle."

"Thanks," JT says, smiling softly.

He sits back and squeezes some lube into his palm, then caps it and puts it near JT's hip. He rubs his hands together, warming the lube up some and then traces a finger up JT's thigh. "Ready?"

JT nods. "Ready," he says, spreading his legs a little wider.

Alexander presses against his hole lightly, not pushing in, just letting him get used to the feeling. JT clenches against his finger, then takes a deep breath and relaxes, and Alexander pushes the tip of his finger in.

JT sucks in a breath, relaxing against Alexander's finger. "Okay, I'm okay."

"Okay," Alexander says, pulling his finger back slowly and pushing it in a little deeper. He keeps watching JT's face, trying to pick up on how he's doing.

JT's jaw drops and his eyes flutter shut. "Fuck—"

"Good?" Alexander asks, curling his finger. "Tell me, c'mon."

"Fuck, yes, it's good, A," JT moans, his voice a little strained, like he's trying to keep his composure.

"You want more?" Alexander asks.

JT nods, letting out a breathy _uh huh_.

"Okay," Alexander murmurs. He pulls his finger out and presses slowly back in with two. "I need you to talk to me, Jay, c'mon."

JT nods, squeezing his eyes shut. "God, it's like—really fucking good, Alexander."

"Good," Alexander says. He pushes in a little farther, then pulls out and pushes back in. He goes slowly, as smoothly as he can, feeling JT relax around him.

"Fuck, like that, baby," JT says, his chest flushing pink.

"Yeah," Alexander says, less because he has something to say and more because he just wants to reply. "God, you're gorgeous like this."

JT turns his head, gasping when Alexander curls his fingers. "Oh, shit."

Alexander grins. "Like that again?"

"Fuck, _please,_ Alexander," JT says, grinding back against Alexander's fingers.

Alexander curls his fingers again, and JT gasps and shudders beneath him. It's easy to set up a rhythm, to fuck his fingers in and out of JT, curling them every so often to get JT to cry out.

"God, another, please, A," JT moans, arching his back.

"Of course, baby," Alexander says. He pulls his fingers out and pushes in with three, watching JT's face carefully.

JT's hand moves to rest on his stomach right above his dick, clenching. "Fuck, okay, if you keep going, I'll come." 

"Shit," Alexander breathes out. "Without me even touching you?"

JT bites his lip. "No, but it'll be, like, as soon as you touch me."

"That is something I'm going to remember, just so you know," Alexander says, dragging his fingers out slowly. "You want to come like that, or do you want me to fuck you?"

"I want to come on your dick this time," JT says, propping himself up on his elbows to look at Alexander. He grins. "But please do remember that for next time."

"I promise," Alexander says, reaching for the condom. He rolls it on quickly, then strokes himself, spreading the lube around. "Spread for me?"

JT spreads his legs wide, looking up at Alexander through his lashes. "You can fuck me rough, A."

Alexander pulls in a breath. "I—uh." he bites his lip. "Is it okay if I don't? I want… I want to be gentle with you. At least this first time."

JT's face softens. He leans up to cup Alexander's cheek. "I'd like that," he grins, pressing a kiss to Alexander's lips.

Alexander kisses him back, and it's sweet and soft and sure. "Me too," he says. "Are you ready?"

JT nods. "Yeah, c'mon. Want you, Alexander."

"I want you too," Alexander says. He kisses JT once more, then sits back up. He strokes himself again, then shuffles forward, lining himself up and pressing in so, so slowly.

" _Fuck,_ A," JT says, clenching and unclenching around Alexander.

"Babe," Alexander says, groaning. "God, you feel good."

"Fuck, you're big," JT moans, relaxing under him.

Alexander laughs a little breathlessly. "I can't tell if you're trying to compliment me or say it's too much."

"If you stop, I'm kicking you out," JT gasps.

"Not planning on it unless you tell me," Alexander says. He pulls out a little and pushes back in, just as slow and smooth as before. It's kind of torture, going so slowly, but it's pulling the sweetest noises out of JT, and Alexander wants this to last for as long as it can.

JT whines under Alexander and begs, "God, please, go a little faster."

"Yeah, okay," Alexander says, picking up the pace of his hips a little. He bites his lip at the feeling, JT clenching hot around him. It's so much, so good.

"Fuck, A. That's so good, I'm so full, you're so big," JT gasps, grinding his ass against Alexander's hips.

"You feel so good," Alexander says, groaning. "God, Jay, you're so tight."

JT shudders, flushing dark. "Shit, call me that again."

"Jay," Alexander breathes out. He reaches between them and wraps his fingers around JT's dick. "C'mon, Jay, come for me."

JT gasps and arches his back. "Fuck, fuck, A," he moans, coming over his fist.

"Holy shit," Alexander chokes out as JT clenches down around him. He thrusts in twice more and squeezes his eyes shut as he comes, too.

"Baby, holy fuck, oh my god," JT says, shivering from oversensitivity. "Fuck, that was amazing."

"God," Alexander groans. "JT, oh my god." He pulls out of JT and takes off the condom. "Let me grab you a washcloth, okay?"

JT nods softly, resting his head on his arm. "I'll be here."

He makes his way into JT's bathroom, which is when he abruptly realises that he doesn't actually know where JT keeps the linens. There's a hand towel by the sink, though, so he grabs that and wets it for JT.

"Hey," he says, walking back in and kneeling beside JT. "I'm improvising here. Hope that's okay."

JT blinks his eyes open. "Yeah, that's totally fine, baby." he says, his voice soft. "You're doing great."

Alexander smiles and leans down. "Let me clean you up?"

JT leans up and presses their lips together. "Yeah, that sounds good," he says, smiling.

He goes as gently as he can, wiping lube and sweat and come off of JT's stomach, wiping down between his legs. He's as thorough as he can be, because as someone who has slept with dried jizz on his skin before, he doesn't want to put JT through that.

JT hums. "Thank you," he says sleepily.

Alexander kisses him and tosses the towel towards the bathroom. "You're welcome."

"C'mere and cuddle," JT says, his cheeks flushing pink. 

"Absolutely," Alexander says, sliding into the bed. He cuddles up next to JT and throws an arm over his waist. "Are you comfortable?"

JT hums and nods, nudging back against Alexander. He reaches down and tangles his fingers with Alexander's. "Night."

"Night," Alexander says quietly, kissing behind JT's ear.

-0-

Alexander blinks his eyes open to the feeling of someone rubbing gently at his back. "Hmm?" he asks drowsily, turning his head to see JT above him, smiling softly. He can feel an answering smile spread across his own face. "Jay. G'morning."

JT grins and leans down, pressing a kiss to Alexander's hair. "Morning, baby."

Alexander's still smiling when JT pulls back. "How're you? Not too sore?"

"I'm good, I feel good. It was good. I really liked it," JT says, flushing. 

"Good," Alexander says. "It was really great." He flushes, too. "Do you, uh. Next time I have an off day, would you be interested in doing it the other way?"

JT raises an eyebrow. "Yeah? You want that?" he grins slyly.

"I love it," Alexander blurts out. "I just—I need to skate tonight, and I can't be sore. But I really want your dick in me."

"Okay, I think I can make that happen," JT says, rolling them over so he's on top of Alexander. "Can I kiss you?"

"Please do," Alexander says, tilting his head up.

JT cups Alexander's cheek, running his thumb over the stubble. "You should keep the beard. You'd look good," he says, leaning down and kissing Alexander deeply.

Alexander groans into in, settling his hands on JT's waist and urging him to grind down. JT gasps against Alexander's lips as he rolls his hips. "Bet you'd like beard burn huh? Let me eat you out and have your ass and thighs all red from me."

"Fuck," Alexander says, fingers tightening on JT's hips. "God, yeah, yes. Please."

"God, I love it when you beg for me," JT says, kissing down Alexander's neck. "Can I mark you?"

"Yeah," Alexander says, craning his neck. "God, please. Give me something to take with me."

JT sucks a dark mark on Alexander's neck, pressing his thigh in between Alexander's. "C'mon, baby, grind on my thigh."

Alexander whines and does, clutching at JT's ass. "C'mon, you too."

JT groans, biting Alexander's shoulder as he grinds down against Alexander's thigh. "Fuck, A—"

"Babe," Alexander says, rolling his hips up. "Kiss me?"

JT whines, kissing Alexander. "Fuck, baby—"

Alexander moans and grinds up. "God, please."

"C'mon, come for me, A," JT says, resting his forehead against Alexander's.

"I'm gonna," Alexander says, thrusting up. "You too, Jay, please."

"Close, baby, c'mon," JT kisses Alexander deep, biting his lower lip to draw a whine out of Alexander that goes straight to his dick.

Alexander squeezes his eyes shut. "Jay," he breathes out, and he arches his back and comes.

JT grinds against Alexander's cock as he comes, shuddering out a breath. "Fuck, baby," he moans, and comes hard too.

JT collapses on top of him and Alexander throws an arm over his waist, holding him in place as they both catch their breath. "Mmm, good way to wake up."

"Yeah, not bad," JT mumbles into Alexander's neck. "We should shower."

"We should," Alexander agrees. "I have, like, an hour to make it to skate."

"I'd say shower together but I don't trust you to not make a move," JT grins.

Alexander laughs. "Just this once I won't," he promises. "If I'm late to skate, I won't be able to play tonight. I like you a lot, but not that much."

"I'm offended," JT gasps, fake incredulous. "C'mon, let's go."

They make their way into the bathroom, and Alexander is a perfect gentleman in the shower save for one ass grab. He's only human.

"Hey!" JT jumps and turns around, and Alexander grins at him. He winds his arms around Alexander's neck and kisses him under the spray of the water. "You've gotta leave before I fuck you in the shower myself."

Alexander shivers. "Later," he promises. "Next off day. We'll figure it out later."

"Definitely," JT says, moving his hands down to squeeze Alexander's ass. 

"I have to go," Alexander protests, grinning. "C'mon, Jay."

"Okay, okay," JT grins, kissing him. He turns off the water and steps out of the shower, holding the towel out to Alexander.

It doesn't take long to dry off and get dressed. "Breakfast?" Alexander asks. "I can grab something on the way if you don't want to cook for me again."

"All I have are eggs and toast. Is that okay?" JT says.

"Eggs and toast sounds perfect," Alexander says, smiling. "Want a hand? I can at least put coffee on for you."

"You can show me how to make tea," JT grins, taking Alexander's hand and pulling him close.

"We definitely don't have time for that," Alexander says, laughing before kissing him.

"Coffee it is," JT grins, pulling away after a moment. "Breakfast. C'mon, I want to watch you play tonight."

"I'm sure we can make that happen," Alexander says. "Emily and Tenner would love the chance, I'm sure."

JT nods. "Good. you make the coffee, I'll scramble the eggs."

Alexander gets to work, measuring the coffee out and setting the coffee to brew. He considers the tea; he doesn't have time to heat up the kettle, but he can microwave some water and make the black tea blend. He's gonna owe Josty a muffin basket for the selection, honestly.

JT gets to work on scrambling the eggs. "With or without cheese?"

"With cheese," Alexander says. "That was good yesterday."

"I told you," JT grins. He's clearly smug about it, but the eggs _were_ good, so Alexander will let it slide.

"You did," he says, laughing. "And I trusted you, so now I know."

"You made the right decision. I am a _very_ trustworthy person," JT says. He's probably trying to come off as innocent, but Alexander isn't buying it.

Alexander's smile doesn't dim. "Yeah? Why's that?"

JT's eyes flick up and down Alexander's body and he smirks. "Because I'll always be honest about what I want."

Alexander thinks back to their initial texts, when Josty had been intervening, and JT saying _this is me asking you on a date_. "Good," he says. “I'm bad at that sometimes."

"Yeah?" JT raises an eyebrow. "You seemed to have no problem asking last night."

"I did say sometimes," Alexander points out. "Like, it's probably time to confess this to you: Josty's the one who asked you out for me, that first time. I was freaking out too hard and he stole my phone."

"Yeah, I figured it was someone else." JT grins. "You don't seem like a person who keysmashes a lot."

"We might have been wrestling for the phone," Alexander admits, laughing. "I told him to fix it, and now here we are."

"I've gotta send him a gift basket," JT says.

"You definitely don't," Alexander says, rolling his eyes. "He's already a busybody. Don't give him incentive to keep barging into other people's relationships."

"Fair enough," JT replies, putting the eggs on the plate. 

"So what about your teammates?" Alexander asks. "Anyone I need to be watching for a shovel talk from? Just so you know, Josty's gonna try, but he's also going to fail pretty hard at it."

"Gary Harris, definitely," JT says. "You’re gonna definitely get one from him, and probably Jokic."

"Gary's the one who did that commercial with Gabe, right?" Alexander asks. "I'll see if I can leverage that to get in his good graces."

"Good luck," JT chuckles. "He's protective of his team."

"I'm gonna apologise for EJ ahead of time," Alexander says. "Like, I'm also gonna have to apologise after, but… yeah."

"Oh yeah?" JT asks. "Why?"

"There's no possible way for me to explain EJ to you," Alexander says, shaking his head. "He's a lot in every single way he can be, and sometimes he invents new ways just to piss everyone else off. I love the guy to death, but…"

"Sounds like a fun guy," JT says, grinning.

"He is," Alexander says, grinning. "He keeps naming horses after teammates, but like, not the one he's dating. That's the kind of person he is."

"Do you have a horse? I need to know if I can catch a ride on him," JT smirks.

"You can get a ride any time you want," Alexander says, smirking right back. "All you have to do is ask, babe."

JT flushes, though his smirk doesn't fade. "Maybe I will. See how you do tonight, though."

"You want me to score for you, hmm?" Alexander says, delighted at how red JT's face is. "I sure will try."

"Yeah? I'm going to be there, and I’ve been known to be _quite_ lucky." JT raises an eyebrow.

"We'll see how lucky," Alexander says. "I can use all the luck I can get."

"You should get going before I ask for that ride," JT says. "That's a whole different kind of luck."

Alexander swallows so he doesn't blurt out anything dumb like _ask me anyway._ "Yeah," he says. "Kiss for the road?"

"Of course," JT smiles, kissing him softly. "Go have a good practice. I'll be at the game tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Alexander says, smiling. "I’ll toss you a puck. Emily'll love that."

"I hope you'll sign it," JT says. "I'm a big fan."

"Maybe if you ask really nicely," Alexander replies. "Really, _really_ nicely."

"Yeah?" JT asks, putting his hands on Alexander's hips and pulling him closer. "Please, _please_ sign my puck. I'll do anything."

"Anything, huh," Alexander says. "What if I'm into something really weird?"

"Do you know how far down the rabbit hole you'd have to get for me to judge you?" JT raises an eyebrow.

"That sounds like a challenge," Alexander says. "I guess I'll have to find out later."

"Guess you might," JT says, leaning in to kiss Alexander again.

Alexander kisses back before putting his hands on JT's chest and pushing gently. "I have to go," he says, taking a step back. "I'll see you later."

"Okay," JT says. He raises a hand like he's going to reach out, but drops it quickly. "See you later."

-0-

Morning skate is fine; there's really nothing special about it. Alexander skates and does his stretches and answers some questions when the media comes in, and then he catches Emily's attention. "Hey, question for you."

"Answer for you," Emily says, snapping a couple of photos of Cale and Sammy laughing together.

"Any chance you want to do some sort of quid pro quo thing with the Nuggets?" he asks. "I, uh. Compher's coming to the game tonight."

"Oh?" she asks, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree. "Any chance you had something to do with that?"

"Maybe," he replies. "Look, I just wanted to let you know. I don't know if you have time to do a jersey thing for him or whatever, but it could be good publicity, and he's okay with it."

Her bright grin turns into a smirk. "He wants your jersey, eh, Kerf?"

Alexander blushes hard. "No," he splutters. "I mean—I got a Nuggets one with my name on it. I didn't know if you wanted to try to get an Avs jersey with his name on it." If he wanted JT to have a jersey with his name on it, he'd just give him one.

"And I distinctly remember Tenner having JT give you his game worn jersey," Emily says, raising an eyebrow.

He coughs. "Whatever," he says. "Look, do what you want to do. I'm just being a nice person and giving you a heads up."

"Okay, thank you. We'll be sure to make something happen. I'll get in touch with Jamie and let her know, because I don't think that this is something you guys have let her know about." She raises an eyebrow. "Am I right?"

Alexander rolls his eyes. "You already know you're right. You don't have to be smug about telling _Jamie_."

Emily's posture straightens, and her cheeks flush. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Weird," Alexander says, eyebrows going up. "Should I ask her, then?"

"Don't you have goals to be missing?" Emily asks, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. 

Alexander smiles sweetly at her. "That's enough of an answer, I think." He turns around and heads back into the locker room to get dressed.

He hears Emily sigh, and a moment later, she starts talking, probably into her phone. "Hey, I have a proposition for you..."

He smiles to himself as the locker room door closes behind him. He glances around, seeing who's left, and he's glad when he looks to the left. "Hey, Colin," he calls. "Want to go grab lunch?"

Colin's towel drying his hair off as he looks at Alexander. "Sure! What's up?"

Alexander shrugs, but he's smiling a little. "I just want to talk."

Colin raises an eyebrow, but smiles anyway. "My treat, come on."

"Thanks," Alexander says, falling into step with him as they head out of the locker room. "Everything's good, I promise."

"That's good," Colin says. "Is this about—"

"Yeah," Alexander cuts in. He glances around. "Despite what Josty might have led you to believe, we're not out to everyone ever yet."

Colin chuckles. "Of course. Tyson does get excited when it comes to learning about you being happy."

"He's just excited, period," Alexander says. "It's nice, most of the time, and we talked about him toning it down when it comes to my private life."

"Good. That was a conversation that needed to happen," Colin says. "I'm proud of you for advocating for yourself."

"Thanks," Alexander says as they reach their cars. "Where should we eat?"

"Interstate," Colin says. "I want chicken fried chicken, don't tell."

"Don't worry, I won't," Alexander smiles. 

The drive isn't far, so it's easy to follow Colin over and park. It's not busy in the middle of the day, so they grab a table in the back and place their orders. "So," Colin says, setting their menus aside. "What's up?"

"It's about JT," Alexander says, sipping his water. "I really like him.”

Colin smiles at him. "That's great," he says. "I'm glad it's going well."

"It's going really well," Alexander smiles a little. "We... I _really_ like him."

"Tell me about him," Colin says. "All I know is that he plays basketball and he has red hair."

"He's a sap," Alexander says, his smile going soft. "Said it was too cold to go back out and get my bag, so he gave me a pair of sweats and a shirt to sleep in. That's why I wore it to practice yesterday."

"That's sweet," Colin says. "What else?"

"He likes cheese in his eggs? He made like, _really good_ scrambled eggs. I know the bar is pretty low, because it's _scrambled eggs,_ but I always scorch mine, and he also put green onion in them," Alexander says.

Colin's laughing quietly. "It sounds good," he says. "So are you guys officially dating?"

Alexander blushes. "We've only seen each other twice."

"And…." Colin says. "You haven't talked about it yet, have you?"

"Isn't that too fast?" Alexander asks.

Colin raises an eyebrow. "The sooner you talk about it, the less chance there is for things to get messed up later. You can wait if you want, but in my experience, it's better to talk about it now." He takes a sip of his water. "I'm not saying you should, like, tell him you love him, because it's too soon for that. But figuring out if you're dating or just messing around? That's important."

"That's true," Alexander says. "I don't really want it to be messing around."

"Then tell him that," Colin says, voice gentle. "He can't read your mind. And hey, there's every chance that he doesn't want it to be just messing around, either."

"You think so?" Alexander asks.

"I haven't met him, so I don't know for sure," Colin says. "But I don't make fancy scrambled eggs for just anyone, and I bet he doesn't either."

"They weren't _fancy_ scrambled eggs," Alexander splutters. "They were just... he can just cook!"

"Okay," Colin says, smiling. "But you liked the eggs, and you like the guy who cooked them. Talk to him about it."

"I mean, if you put it that way," Alexander says, then he sighs. "I've gotta go talk to him, don't I? He's coming to the game, and everyone's going to see him. Oh god, wait, no, _EJ's going to see him._ "

Colin snorts. "You haven't warned him about EJ?"

"Oh no, I did, and then I apologized, and then I apologized again," Alexander says flatly.

"That's a good start," Colin says. "Look, if you like him enough that you want him to stick around, EJ's gonna happen eventually. Might as well rip the bandaid off."

"Yeah, I know," Alexander says. "I'm gonna get fined so bad."

"Not the first time you bring him by," Colin promises. "I'll make EJ lay off. You get an amnesty period."

"My hero," Alexander says. "He's supposedly gonna be here for warmups, and then their social media correspondent is going to do her thing with Emily."

"Oh no," Colin says, laughing. "Are you prepared for that? Emily times two."

"I think they’re dating," Alexander says. "So they're gonna be extra terrible."

Colin laughs. "I'm not actually surprised by that, I don't think," he says.

"Neither am I. You should've seen how well they got along first meeting each other at the Nuggets game the other night," Alexander laughs.

"Well, I'm glad Emily's happy," Colin says. "Maybe that'll get her to lay off the rest of us a bit, eh?"

"I highly, _highly_ doubt it," Alexander says. "You should've seen her when I told her that JT's coming to the game today."

"Well, that was your first mistake," Colin says, laughing. "You gonna talk to your boy?"

"Yeah, I'll talk to him after," Alexander smiles. "Thanks, Colin."

"No problem, Alexander," Colin says, smiling. "I'm happy to help."

-0-

Alexander opens the door to Josty in a warm blanket on the couch, looking comfortable and sleepy as hell. "Hey," he says.

Josty waves. "Wanna cuddle in my blanket fort?"

"Always," Alexander grins, setting his keys down before walking over. "You seem comfy."

"I'm so comfy," Josty says, holding the blanket up so Alexander can scoot under it with him. “This blanket is the best thing I've ever gotten."

Alexander climbs in and holds Josty close to him, hooking his chin over Josty's shoulder. "We should write that lady a thank you letter."

"We should," Josty agrees, petting the blanket. "So how was your night? You can give me as many or as few details as you want."

"He made me eggs this morning," Alexander says softly. "Like, Colin says they were fancy."

"Hey, fancy eggs," Josty says, and Alexander can hear his smile. "Get you a man who can make you fancy eggs."

"They had green onions and cheese in them. And they weren't scorched," Alexander says. "I really like him, Tys."

"Awesome," Josty declares. "I'm glad, dude. You deserve to be happy."

"He's got an amazing ass too," Alexander says, snorting when Josty fistpumps.

"Nice," he crows. "Get it, my man. And if you need me to crash somewhere else, just say the word."

"I'll let you know," Alexander laughs. "He's coming to the game tonight."

"Oh no," Josty says immediately. "But EJ's gonna be there."

"I've already apologized in advance and told Colin to tell him to lay off. Whatever else happens is the universe's fault," Alexander says, and he knows it sounds like something he's been telling himself the entire ride home from lunch.

"Well, I guess it has to happen eventually," Josty says. "Better to find out now if EJ's gonna scare him off or not."

"I don't think he will, though," Alexander says. "He wanted to send you a gift basket as a thanks for getting us together. I think he'll be okay."

"Tell him I love blueberry muffins," Josty says immediately. "Dude. I’ll run interference myself if he sends me a basket of blueberry muffins."

"I'll keep that in mind." Alexander smiles, resting his head against Josty's. "Thanks, man."

"No problem," Josty says, tugging Alexander in close. "We're bros. I'm here for you."

Alexander holds Josty tight. "Hey, Josty?"

"Yeah, bud?" Josty replies.

"You're gonna need to crash somewhere else tonight."

Josty laughs and knocks their heads together. "Can do, buddy. Can do."

-0-

Alexander's skating around the ice, trying not to look too obvious as he searches for JT in the crowd. He wants to see JT, obviously, but he also wants to find him before—

"Hey, Kerfoot," EJ croons, and Alexander turns to see him grinning maniacally at the crowd.

"Aw, goddammit," Alexander sighs under his breath. "EJ, leave him alone."

"So I shouldn't aim this puck at him? Give him the ol' talkin' to?" EJ says, changing his stance at the puck. JT's still looking at his phone, not paying attention to the conversation EJ and Alexander are having.

"I will murder you in your sleep," Alexander says. " _And_ I’ll tell Sammy." EJ pales and squints, so Alexander turns around, locking eyes with Sammy. "Hey, G!"

Sammy raises both eyebrows. "What have you done, Erik?"

"I'm just practicing my aim!" EJ says. "I haven't done anything wrong!"

Sammy looks at EJ, then Alexander, then into the crowd past them, and then he sighs. "Come practice with me," he orders, skating away. "On the other side of the ice."

"Yes _sir_." EJ waggles his eyebrows and grins at Alexander. "Go get your boy, Xander!"

"Ew," Alexander says to nobody, wrinkling his nose up as EJ skates away. He only holds it for a second, though, because JT finally glances up, and he beams when he catches Alexander's eye.

"Ew is fucking right, oh my god, you didn't tell me how sappy you two are," Josty says, skating by.

"You've met you, right," Alexander calls, skating towards the glass. "All I have to do is mention Dante and you're practically tripping over your own feet."

Josty, as if on cue, trips over a puck. "That wasn't there before! And that wasn't about Dante!"

Alexander snickers and continues to skate over, bumping gently into the glass in front of JT. "Hi," he says, knowing JT can't hear him.

JT smiles, wide and beautiful. 

Alexander laughs and points. "Nice jersey."

JT turns around, showing off a 6 Johnson jersey before turning back to face Alexander. "Like it?"

Alexander gives him both thumbs up. "Bribery," he says. "Good call."

EJ looks over and sees his name. "Don't let him think he's off the hook."

"Cher, come on," Sammy says, tapping his stick.

"He's trying to play nice, so give him a break," Alexander says. "I swear to god, EJ, if you fuck this up for me I will never forgive you, so help me."

"I won't! I _won't!_ " EJ says.

"I mean it," Alexander says, glad that he's turned away so JT can't read his lips from that angle. "I— _please,_ EJ."

"I mean it, I won't," EJ says, his gaze softening. "I wouldn't do that to you."

Alexander sighs. "okay," he says. "Thanks. I… he means a lot to me."

EJ skates over and taps the glass to say hi. JT turns around and shows the jersey with a grin, and EJ's face brightens. "The man has taste. Wouldn't know that from picking you."

"Hey," Alexander protests, but he smiles when EJ taps him on the shoulder. When he glances through the glass, JT's smiling at him, too.

"Give him a puck, dude." EJ knocks his shoulder against Alexander's and winks. "You'll thank me later," he says before skating away.

Alexander laughs, but JT's still smiling at him. He reaches out with his stick and grabs a puck, skating backwards so he can do some fancy stickhandling. He doesn't fuck it up, thank god, and then he scoops the puck up and grins at JT before tossing it up and over the glass.

JT takes the puck and holds it close, smiling warmly. "Thank you," he mouths, and Alexander feels like he's walking on air.

"Hey," someone says behind him, whacking at his legs. He turns to see Gravy looking at him a little guiltily. "Look, they sent me over to tell you, uh—but whatever, we need to go back and get ready, okay?"

Alexander flushes, glancing back. JT waves at him like _go, it's okay_ and gives him a thumbs up. Alexander smiles and nods. "C'mon, let's go."

They go back into the locker room for their last-minute adjustments, and then it's time to skate back out for the game. Alexander isn't starting, but he'll be out with the second line, and most of his JT-related nerves fade in the face of the game he's about to play.

Of course there's something else, though, because Emily's never going to let a prime opportunity for PR slip away from her. Alexander can only blame himself when the lights come up on a carpet at center ice and Gabe skates over. "Ceremonial puck drop," he says, grinning. "Apparently this is your time to shine, Kerf."

"Oh my god," Alexander groans, but he goes over the boards and skates to center ice across from a _very_ confused looking Jack Eichel. "I'm sorry about this."

"Dude," Eichel says, glancing at Alexander and then at the carpet. "Usually we get warning about this shit. What gives?"

Alexander rolls his eyes. "PR," he says, hoping that covers it, and then he stops talking as Roach comes over the PA system to let everyone know that _Denver Nuggets player JT Compher is in the house to do a ceremonial puck drop!_

JT walks down the carpet in his Johnson jersey, smiling and waving, and when he gets to the end of the carpet, he laughs quietly. "This is new."

"I'm gonna kill Emily," Alexander says, but he's smiling. JT's right there; of course he's smiling. "Just drop it and then we can get going."

"Nice win the other day," Eichel adds, and JT and Alexander both jump. Right. They're in front of Jack Eichel. And, like, the whole Pepsi Center.

JT laughs again and drops the puck; they go through the song and dance, and Alexander doesn't let his hand linger when they shake. He's grinning as he skates back to the bench.

The game is incredible. They get a shutout against the Sabres, and Alexander scores the first goal of the game. He points at the corner where JT's sitting when he does, yelling as he slams into the boards, his teammates skating in for the hug.

"Showoff," Josty says in his ear.

Alexander laughs, shoving at him. "You're damn right I am."

The rest of the game is the best kind of blur, the kind where they keep scoring and the other team keeps _not_ scoring, and then they're giving Frankie head pats before heading back into the locker room. 

"Hey, Alexander," Emily calls as he walks off the ice, and her grin is super wide. "Or should I say Mister First Star?"

Alexander laughs as his ears go pink. "Shut up."

Emily raises an eyebrow. "Any reason why you were such a try-hard today?"

"It's my job?" Alexander shoots back.

Emily points to JT. "Nothing to do with him?" she asks.

"And the first star," Roach bellows, and thankfully that means Alexander can walk away from Emily. "With the game winning goal and one assist, Alexander Kerfoot!"

Alexander skates out onto the ice, waving his stick around before coming to a stop next to—oh, shit, Emily, who's giving him a shit-eating grin.

"How do you feel, Alexander? Your first game winning goal of the season!" she says into the mic.

"Uh, pretty good," he says, laughing. "It's always good to get a win in front of our home fans. Best place to play in the league."

Emily smiles as the crowd roars. "And a shutout! What does it mean to the team, getting those two points?"

"Every point's important, so we're excited," he says, trying not to let himself search the crowd for JT. "We just have to keep rolling, make sure we carry this momentum into the next game."

"And how special is it to win in front of _this_ crowd?" Emily asks, and she's not laughing at him, but Alexander can tell it's only just.

He laughs and shakes his head. "Pretty special," he says, looking right at Emily. "It's always special to win at home, but yeah, tonight was even better."

She does laugh at that, clapping him on the shoulder and taking a step back. “Your first star, Alexander Kerfoot!"

He waves again and then skates off.

Emily follows him off the ice. "Nice going, Mister First Star."

"Thanks for not making my life too difficult," he says, laughing. "Am I free to go, or do you have something else up your sleeve?"

"Well, Tenner is here, and we're calling JT down now," Emily says, grinning wide.

Alexander snorts. "I guess we'll just get this over with."

"You're talking like _you_ didn't ask for this," she laughs.

"I figured if he was here and I didn't tell you, you'd kick my ass," Alexander says, shrugging. "I didn't want to do that forgiveness and permission thing, not when you have control over what video gets put online and what doesn't."

"Whatever do you mean?" she grins sickly sweet. "And you're right, I would. Not that I'd ever use the video of you two meeting. _I'm quite lucky._ You really are!"

Alexander scowls at her, but he can feel his face transform in an instant as a familiar figure walks down the tunnel. He steps past Emily and reaches out. "Hey."

"When I said get me a goal, I didn't know you'd go above and beyond, dude. That's so thoughtful," JT grins, grabbing Alexander's hands.

Alexander laughs. "Anything for you. You _told_ me you were lucky."

"I didn't know I was that lucky," he says, stepping closer. "Look at you, shortie, you're taller than me in those skates."

"Shortie, eh?" Alexander asks, stepping even closer.

There's a loud coughing sound from behind them, and Alexander turns to find Emily and Tenner both grinning. "Oh, man, and I thought the first video was hard to edit," Tenner says. "Guys, one minute of footage where it doesn't look like you're heading for the nearest closet and then you can go, okay?"

Alexander flushes dark. "That's all him," he says, knocking JT's shoulder. 

JT rolls his eyes. "Yeah, okay, sure. As if I didn't see you eyeing me up the entire time I gave you my jersey—"

"Guys, please?" Emily asks. 

Alexander bites his lip and steps back. "I'm not putting a Johnson jersey on, so I hope you have something else for this swap."

"Something wrong with the best player of all time?" JT asks with a smirk. 

"I'm already wearing his jersey," Alexander shoots back.

"Oh, really? You're not wearing a Compher jersey," JT raises an eyebrow.

"Really, boys?" Emily says. "Just _one minute_ of footage. One. That's all we're asking for."

"Do you have another jersey for this, or am I just signing this one for an adoring fan?" Alexander asks Emily.

"Oh, I'm an _adoring fan_ , am I?" JT asks.

" _I'll do anything for a puck,_ " Alexander says. "I can just sign that and we can be on our way, right Tenner?"

"Oh my god," Tenner mutters. She shoves a jersey at JT. "Pull off the one you're wearing and put this on." She shakes the jersey out and it's an Avs jersey with 37 Compher on the back, and Alexander has to bite his lip so he doesn't make a _noise_ at that.

"Are we swapping?" JT asks, glancing at Alexander. "Because A over here looks like he's about to have an aneurysm."

Emily snorts loud enough that it probably hurts. “That is _not_ how I'm interpreting that face, but okay."

Alexander flushes and shoots a look at Emily. "Dude."

"Stop with the eyes, and then I'll stop with the jokes! Simple!" she says.

"Babe, can we get on with the swap?" Tenner says, which is a whole other thing Alexander's going to ask Emily about, if the red in her cheeks is anything to go by.

"I'm pretty sure we all have places we'd rather be," JT adds, smirking when it makes Tenner blush.

"Then let's go!" Tenner says.

It goes much smoother this time, mostly because Alexander definitely knows how far down the blush goes this time, so he's not caught up in staring. They manage the handoff without actually touching each other, which is good, because Alexander feels like they both might make the video unuseable if they hold contact for more than a second.

"I still can sign that if you want, give it some authenticity," Alexander grins at JT.

"What was your line?" JT asks. "Doesn't the sweat make it count enough?"

Alexander shakes his head with a smile. "Shut up," he laughs, his nose crinkling. "Please tell me you're going to wash that."

"Uh, clearly, it reeks," JT says, somehow managing not to laugh. He glances at Tenner. "Are we done here?"

Tenner rolls her eyes. "We have the exact same video as two days ago," she says.

Emily looks at her and shakes her head. "I don't think we're going to get anything better, babe," she says.

Alexander shrugs. "You get what you get and you don't get upset," he says, grinning. "Didn't you go to kindergarten?"

"I'll give you kindergarten," Emily mutters. "Leave. Both of you go."

"Thank you, Emily!" Alexander draws out her name before he turns to JT. "I'm gonna shower, and then we can go."

"I’ll chill here with my buddy Tenner," JT says. "Right, Tenner?"

"Go the fuck away, Joseph Taylor," Tenner says promptly.

Alexander laughs and heads for the locker room. "I’ll be back," he promises. "Just hang out for a few minutes, okay?"

"I'll be here," JT says, smiling after him.

It's a quick shower, Alexander definitely rushes through it. It's not that he doesn't trust his hockey team, it's just—

No, yeah. He doesn't trust them.

He gets dressed and leaves the locker room to find EJ standing next to a slightly pale JT. "Erik."

"Alexander," EJ says sweetly. "What's up? Doing anything fun and interesting tonight?"

Alexander glances around, making sure there aren't any media people hanging out, and then steps closer and lowers his voice. "Not if you broke him, I'm not."

JT's face goes from pale to dark red. "A."

EJ laughs brightly. "Nice. I'll leave you two lovebirds alone. JT? We'll talk."

"No you won't!" Alexander says as EJ walks away.

"He's, uh," JT says, watching as EJ walks away.

Alexander sighs. "I'm sorry," he says. "Again. I know I've already apologised, but…"

"No, you did warn me," JT says, shaking his head. "And I believed you, but even so."

"Yeah," Alexander agrees. "So, um. Josty's spending the night somewhere else. Want to come back to mine?"

JT smiles. "Yeah, let's do that."

-0-

Alexander's not nervous as he and JT walk up to his apartment, not exactly. He's pretty sure this conversation with JT is gonna go well; it's just that it's always kind of hard to bring stuff like this up. Colin was right, though: it's important.

"So, hey," he says as they walk into his apartment. "We should talk about this? In a good way, I promise."

"We should," JT says, sitting on the couch.

"Just, like," Alexander says, sitting on the recliner. For some reason he's not sure where he should sit. Right next to JT? On the other side of the sofa? Maybe he should go sit on the floor or something?

This is stupid, he decides. "I like you," he says slowly. "And, like. I just want to know where we are? Are we just hooking up, or do you, uh. Do you want more than that?"

"I'll do what you want, Alexander," JT says. "I like you. If you want to keep hooking up without a label, then we can do that. If you want to date, then..." He smiles, a soft thing that makes Alexander's heart hammer. "I'd really like that too."

"I’d like that," Alexander says instantly. He feels his face getting red, but he pushes through, because this is worth it. "I wasn't really out there looking for a boyfriend, but if you want the position, it's yours."

"Is this an interview?" JT asks, laughing. "Because I don't think i've dressed for the part."

"I think this is a part you undress for," Alexander says, grinning at him. "At least, that's how it's been going so far."

"Come over here and I will," JT says.

Alexander stands and walks over, putting a hand on JT's shoulder. "Just to make sure we're on the same page," he says. "We're doing this? Dating?"

"Yeah," JT says, resting his hands on Alexander's hips. "Yeah, I really want that."

"I do too," Alexander says, smiling down at him. "So, hey. Want to stop having this conversation and go have sex instead?"

"Definitely," JT says, standing up and crowding into Alexander's space. "Do you know how hot you were during the game, babe?"

Alexander hums. "I mean, I did score for you, so I'm guessing you liked it."

"Game winning goal," JT says, cupping Alexander's cheek. "It was so hot."

"As hot as you shooting that three from an impossible angle?" Alexander says. "Because that was before we'd met for more than, like, half a second, and I was already into it."

JT ghosts his lips over Alexander's. "Probably hotter," he says, and picks Alexander up.

"Jesus," Alexander says, locking his legs around JT's shoulders and looking down at him. "That’s—okay, that's hot, you being able to pick me up."

"Yeah?" JT asks, pressing Alexander’s back up against a wall before pressing their lips together.

Alexander hums and kisses him back. "Fuck, yeah."

JT nips Alexander's lower lip, rolling his hips up against Alexander. "God, I wanna fuck you tonight."

Alexander groans. "Yeah. God, yeah, let's do it."

"Are you sure?" JT asks, pressing their foreheads together. "You said you don't have another day off until next week."

"I'm sure," Alexander says. "I'll be a little sore for practice. It's worth it."

"Then bed. Now," JT breathes. "Which room is yours?"

"Down the hallway, door on the left," Alexander answers.

"Good," JT says, and then he steps back and turns, walking them into Alexander's room. 

It's an impressive display of strength, being able to carry him down the hallway and into the bedroom, but Alexander doesn't want JT to wear himself out before they get to the fun stuff. "Put me down, Jay," he says. "And take your clothes off."

JT grins. "Okay." He lets Alexander down gently, stripping out of Alexander's jersey that he's still wearing. Alexander has a brief flash of JT keeping it on while they fuck, but that's… definitely a thought for another night, he decides. He starts taking his suit off, because he needs to hang it up, so it's gonna take him a minute.

"What were you thinking?" JT asks, and Alexander can feel JT’s eyes on his back. "I saw that look."

"Thinking about you keeping that on next time I fuck you," Alexander says. "I'd, uh. I’d like that a lot."

JT flushes dark. "Yeah, fuck, that sounds good," he says. "That sounds like a plan." He walks up behind Alexander and wraps his arms around Alexander's waist. He kisses a trail down Alexander's neck, then pauses. "Can I mark you?"

Alexander tilts his head to the side. "Yeah," he says, closing his eyes. "Please."

JT groans, his hand moving down to cup Alexander through his boxers as JT sucks a bruise high on Alexander's neck.

"Fuck," Alexander gasps out, rolling his hips into JT's hand. It's a lot, the feeling of JT marking up his neck and palming him at the same time, and Alexander's incredibly into it.

JT nips at Alexander's neck, humming against his skin. He rolls his hips against Alexander's ass. "C'mon, bed, baby."

"Let me just," Alexander says, taking a step away. He shoves his boxers down and steps out of them, then kicks them away before sitting on the bed and grinning up at JT. "You coming?"

"On my way," JT grins, stepping out of his boxers. He gets on the bed, straddling Alexander. "Better?"

"Much better," Alexander says, tilting his face up for a kiss. JT grins and kisses him deep, threading his fingers through Alexander's hair. It's a good kiss, a great kiss; Alexander's glad that they talked their shit out, that he gets to look forward to more of this.

JT pulls back after a moment and presses their foreheads together. his face is bright red. "Hey, so," he says quietly. "This is kind of dumb, but…"

"But what?" Alexander asks.

"It was really good, you being gentle with me the other night," JT says. "I want to do that for you. With you."

Alexander's smile is soft as he leans up to kiss JT again. "That sounds great, Jay." He nuzzles JT's nose gently.

JT smiles. "Sometimes I'm sappy, but don't tell my teammates," he says. "I promise I’ll only be sappy about you."

"I promise I won't tell," Alexander says. "As long as you won't tell my teammates that I love to cuddle."

"I won't tell," JT promises, leaning down to kiss him again.

Alexander rolls his hips up against JT after a little while, smirking at the gasp it draws out of him. "C'mon, Jay. Fuck me."

"Yeah," JT says, running a hand down Alexander's side. "Where's your stuff?"

Alexander's breath hitches. "Nightstand, first drawer," he says.

JT presses a quick kiss to Alexander's lips and leans over, pulling the drawer open. Alexander had planned ahead, so the lube and condoms are right on top, and JT grins at him. "Nice."

Alexander laughs. "Thought I might get lucky tonight."

"Huh, weird, I had that same thought," JT says, pulling them out and dropping the condoms to the bed. "Guess that makes us both lucky, right?"

"Yeah, guess so," Alexander grins, spreading his legs a little.

JT settles between them, and Alexander hears him pop the lube open and squeeze some onto his fingers. He presses a kiss to Alexander's thigh and looks up at him. "You ready?"

Alexander nods. "Yeah, fuck. I should let you know that I, uh..." He flushes. "Remember how you said you couldn't come from just getting fingered?"

JT grins slowly. "Yeah."

"I've come from it before," Alexander says. "I _really_ like it."

"Shit," JT says, awed. "Let me know if you get too close, okay? I, uh. I want to be fucking you when you come."

"Fuck," Alexander says, jerking his hips up a little. "I want that, fuck."

JT kisses his thigh again. "Good," he says, trailing his fingers up Alexander's leg. "God, you're gorgeous."

Alexander whines. "Jay, please," he says.

“Yeah," JT says. Alexander can feel him moving his hands, and then JT's pushing a finger into him, slow and gentle.

Alexander gasps, staying still as JT moves his finger in. "I'm good, more, please."

"I want to go slowly," JT reminds him. "Just… let me take my time with you, baby."

Alexander shivers at the pet name, and he nods. “Okay."

"Thanks," JT says, smiling up at him. "I know it's sappy."

"I like it," Alexander says. "It's sweet."

"I'm glad," JT says, thrusting his finger in and out slowly, building a rhythm. "Tell me how it feels?"

Alexander gasps, his hips moving to meet JT's finger. "Fuck, really good," he says.

"Good," JT says. "God, let me hear you, okay?"

Alexander nods, a whine escaping from his lips. "Jay, oh my god."

"Yeah, like that," JT says. he pulls his finger all the way out, then pushes the tips of two in. "Good?"

"Yeah, fuck, Jay," Alexander groans, his voice pitched a little high and breathy. 

"God," JT murmurs, pushing his fingers deeper. "Look at how well you take it."

Alexander feels his face go redder, trying to keep his hips still as JT pushes his fingers in. "It feels good, fuck."

JT grins up at him. "Yeah?" he asks, and then he curls his fingers.

"God, yeah." Alexander's back arches as he nods. "So good, baby, fuck, oh my god."

"Tell me if you get close," JT reminds him.

"I'm not there yet, I promise," Alexander says.

"Okay," JT says. He's looking back and forth from Alexander's face down to between his legs, probably watching as he fucks his fingers in. "Still good?"

"I can take another," Alexander replies. "I won't be able to go much longer after that, but I can take another."

"Yeah, okay," JT says. He pulls his fingers out slowly, then pushes in somehow even slower with three. The stretch is a lot, but in a good way.

"Fuck," Alexander says, gripping the sheets so he doesn't fuck his hips back onto JT's fingers. "So good, Jay."

JT visibly swallows. "God, baby, you feel good."

Alexander clenches around JT's fingers. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," JT says. He starts thrusting his fingers, slowly at first and then picking up speed. "Still good?"

"Fuck, fuck, yeah," Alexander says, but the moment JT curls his fingers, he hits Alexander's prostate. "Nope! Nope, stop. I'm close, Jay."

"Okay, baby," JT says, and his fingers go still. he presses a kiss to Alexander's knee. "Deep breath, okay? I'm gonna pull out."

"Okay," Alexander breathes, stilling his hips. "Okay."

"Yeah," JT says, and it sounds like he's just saying it to fill the silence. He pulls his fingers out and sits back, and his eyes are dark as he looks down at Alexander. "God, babe. You look…"

The corners of Alexander's lips quirk up. "You too."

JT laughs and shakes his head, then fumbles for the condom. "This… isn't gonna be my best performance, I'm warning you now."

"Guess we'll just have to do it again," Alexander says, sitting up to roll the condom onto JT.

JT gasps when Alexander squeezes him lightly. "Yeah," he says. "Again and again and again."

Alexander snorts. "Not tonight," he says. "The bye week, maybe."

"It's a date," JT says.

"Book a place far from here. Maui, maybe," Alexander says, looking up at JT through his eyelashes. "Somewhere we can be as loud as we want."

"Yeah," JT says, voice rough. "Are you ready?"

"I've been ready. Fuck me, Jay," Alexander says, leaning up to kiss him.

JT wraps his hand around Alexander's neck and kisses him deeply. Alexander melts into it a little, leaning up so they're pressed chest to chest. It's a good kiss, and when JT pulls back, Alexander whines.

JT laughs quietly. "Lay back," he says. Alexander suppresses a pout, but he does as JT asks. JT smiles at him softly, then leans forward. Alexander can feel him lining up, and he breathes in slowly as JT pushes into him.

Alexander gasps, going still until JT bottoms out. "You should move," he says after a moment. "Preferably a lot."

JT laughs and it sounds a little strained. "Give me a second," he says, closing his eyes. "You feel… way too good."

"You're fucking huge," Alexander says, taking a deep breath. "Make me feel it tomorrow."

"I will," JT says like it's a promise. He pulls back a little and thrusts back in, slow and smooth. "God, baby."

Alexander's moan is loud and broken, his fingers tangled in the sheets. "Fuck, Jay, oh my god."

JT gets his hand on Alexander's thigh and lifts it up over his shoulder, then leans in. It changes the angle, and Alexander groans louder when JT's dick drags against his prostate. "Oh, god," he says, reaching for JT's hand. "Please, more, please."

"Yeah," JT says, and his hips start moving faster. "Yeah, c'mon."

Alexander squeezes JT's hand, his hips moving to meet JT's. "Harder, please," he asks, clenching down around JT.

JT groans and wraps his hand around Alexander's cock. It's not coordinated, but he starts jerking Alexander off as he thrusts in. "Close?" he asks.

Alexander nods, moaning out JT's name. "I'm close, god. More, please."

“Yeah, yeah," JT says. He's fucking in hard, and the sound of it is absolutely obscene. "C'mon, sweetheart. Come for me."

"Shit, fuck," Alexander gasps, his back arching as he comes hard all over JT's hand. "Come in me, Jay."

"Oh fuck," JT says, and he thrusts in hard a few more times and then goes still for a moment before dropping his head.

"Fuck," Alexander says, breathing hard as he calms down.

"I have to," JT says, and he sighs before he pulls out. He gets the condom off and ties it, glancing around Alexander's room. "Uh. Where's the garbage?"

"Nightstand," Alexander says, pointing to the basket.

"Oh, good, I don't have to get up yet," JT says. He tosses the condom into the garbage and collapses beside Alexander, wiping his hand on the sheets. "God, that was…"

"Yeah, definitely," Alexander says. He opens his arms, smiling. He's suddenly exhausted, morning skate and the game and really good sex all catching up to him at the same time.

JT leans in and kisses him softly. "Hey, I'm glad we're doing this," he says quietly.

"Me too," Alexander replies, just as quiet. "You know, before I left for your game the other night, Josty said to go live my dreams and fall in love with a basketball player. Guess I did that, huh?"

JT's smile spreads across his face, big and bright and gorgeous. "I guess you did," he agrees. "Good thing we both fell, huh?"

"Yeah, it is," Alexander says. He can tell the smile on his face is full and fond, but he has no problem letting JT know that's how he's feeling. "It absolutely is."

**Author's Note:**

> [this](https://twitter.com/nuggets/status/1072313827776192512) and [this](https://twitter.com/nuggets/status/921910537621000192%22) inspired this story.
> 
> also, please know that the nuggets [have an incredible jersey.](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2175/4831/products/27-Updated_15304090-aaa5-4ec6-88c1-e7078e297616_300x300.jpg?v=1562858775)


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